


Black Sanctuary

by MsDizzyDahlia



Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fantasy, Individual warnings at the start of every chapter, M/M, Magic, Patton and Janus are sorcerers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25916572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsDizzyDahlia/pseuds/MsDizzyDahlia
Summary: Fifteen years ago, the kingdom was peaceful. Then, the two princes disappeared, leaving no trace. A few days later, the King and Queen were murdered. The kingdom was thrown into chaos. With the entire royal family absent, it became a power struggle, with the ruler being replaced every few months.In the present, a young boy whose parents were lost to a storm and his sorcerer father live alone, separated from reality. Elsewhere a set of twins live with THEIR sorcerer father in a cottage in the woods.What happens when their paths cross? Old wounds reopen, new bonds form, and secrets that have been locked away are set loose.(This story will have two endings. One of them will include a major character death, one won't. If you would like to save yourself from the suffering, there will be something else for you)((This is a Tangled/Rapunzel retelling. A lot of things are different and there is hardly any resemblance to the original story itself but it originally started out as a Tangled AU and morphed into an original story))
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 46
Kudos: 52





	1. Of All the Places in the Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Death? I don't know what to put for warnings, so yeah. Virgil's parents die. But that's it.

_ Fifteen Years Ago _

“Virgil!” Virgil could feel himself being pulled closer to the edge. He knew he couldn’t stay planted in the ground too much longer. His tiny feet were sliding, the wet grass and harsh winds pushing him towards the cliff that dropped off into the raging, unforgiving waters. The storm around him whipped his clothes and his hair, and the young child cried out for his mother, though he doubted she would come. To his surprise, his mother came running out of the forest, grabbing onto him. She pulled him close and turned around, facing the harsh winds that howled. It sounded painfully human, and it was almost as if they were crying out in grief.

His mother pushed him back towards the shelter of the trees, the extra force combined with his own two feet running as fast as he could allowing him to make it back safely. He pulled himself into his brother’s arms, tears of fear running down his face. He turned back, crying out for his mother to come back to the trees, but she just stood there. The winds were too strong, she couldn’t move. Now it was her in the position he had just been in, being pushed towards the edge, to a watery doom. His father saw all this go down and raced out to try and save her, but he too slipped on the grass. His older brother pulled him closer, and Virgil buried his face in his chest, not wanting to look. A particularly strong gust of wind rushed forward, and when Virgil peaked out, his parents were no longer standing on the cliff’s edge. Where were they? What was happening?

“...Brother? Where are Mommy and Daddy?” His brother looked sick, his face pale and his eyes wider than dinner plates. His glasses slid down his face and he pushed them back up, looking down at Virgil and giving him the best smile he could manage. Blue eyes met brown, and he shook his head gently.

“It’s not important, my little knight. We need to get out of here.” His brother grabbed his hand, and pulled him further into the forest.

“But what happens when they come back? They’ll be so worried about us!” Virgil could not for the life of him see why his brother was acting in such a bizarre manner. He never acted like this. What was going on?

“Oh Virgil…” His brother took a deep breath, as if he were struggling to comprehend and accept the truth of the situation. “I don’t think they’re coming back.” Virgil’s eyes widened. What was he saying?

“No! You’re lying!” He ripped his hand out of his brother’s grasp. His eyes were wide and tears were quickly forming. He was holding them back, telling himself that he was wrong, that he had to be wrong, there was no way that was true. “They’re coming back! They have to!”

“Virgil please. Listen to me. They’re not-”

“No! Stop lying to me! They are coming back! They will come back and they will be fine! And I will not let you tell me otherwise! I’m going back for them.” He turned and ran, barely hearing his brother calling after him. Virgil didn’t know much about the world. He just knew that it wasn’t cruel enough to take his parents from him. They were good people! And bad things never happened to good people… right?

Virgil kept running, trying to find his way back to the ledge to wait for them. But unfortunately, the woods are not easy to navigate for such a tiny child, and he soon found himself lost in them. He kept going, hoping to find the ledge still, but it was no use. He tried turning around and going back to his brother, but in his panic, he realized he had no idea which direction he had come from. No idea where his brother was. It was hopeless. He was lost. Completely, utterly, lost. Virgil was a smart child. He knew that he couldn’t afford to be lost in the woods. They were dangerous, they would surely kill him if he stayed here too much longer. But there was no hope for him. No one was coming, and he couldn’t navigate the forest by himself. He was a fool for thinking he could. He curled up against a tree, and cried.

He didn’t know how long he stayed there. All he knew is that eventually, the winds started to slow, and the rain got less intense. He was soaked to the bone, shivering and shaking like it was the middle of winter and all he had on was a t-shirt and shorts. He heard footsteps crunching through the underbrush, and he stiffened.

“Wh-who’s there?” The crunching stopped, and for a moment it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Then it started again, moving at a much faster pace. “H-hello? Who’s there?” He asked again. There was no reply, but the crunching got louder and faster. “Answer me!” There was complete silence for a moment. As if the forest itself was holding its breath. Then a man came into view. He was tall, with dirty blonde hair and unnaturally blue eyes. His fair skin was dotted with freckles and he wore a blue shirt, with a gray cloak tied around his shoulders. The hood was drawn up over his head, but it didn’t hide his round glasses that were much too big for his face.

The man looked surprised to see Virgil, which was honestly fair. It's not every day one runs into a random child in the middle of the woods. He walked up to Virgil slowly, with his hands out in front of him, to show that he meant no harm. Virgil eyed him suspiciously, but the stranger didn’t make a move to harm him. He knelt down in front of Virgil.

“Hello there, little one.” He said. His voice was bubbly and uplifting, while at the same time gentle and kind. “Where are your parents?”

“They’re-” Virgil swallowed. He remembered what his brother said, but shook off those thoughts. His brother was wrong, he had to be. “They’re somewhere. I know they are. They’re probably looking for me right now. We were in the storm, we were trying to get home, and I was slipping, and I was starting to get close to the edge of a cliff, but Mommy, she- she pushed me back into the trees. Then Daddy went out to get Mommy, and they- they disappeared. But I know they’re out there. I know they are! They have to be. They- have to-” He cut himself off with a sob. Virgil buried his head in his arms, but peeked out to look back at the stranger. The man looked stricken, as if he hadn’t expected that answer. Like there was something he knew that Virgil didn’t. Then his face clouded with pain and sorrow.

“I’m sorry little one. Why don’t you come home with me while you wait for your parents to come for you? You’re shivering and wet and cold, and I can warm you up and get you some new clothes.” Virgil looked the man over, once again suspicious.

“Mommy says I’m not supposed to follow strangers home.” The man laughed. It was light, sunny, and bright, as if there was nothing wrong in the world. It was a gentle sound, one that could put even the jumpiest of people at ease.

“Well would it help you if I told you my name? I’m Patton, and you can trust me. I promise I won’t hurt you. I would never hurt a child.” The last part seemed unnecessary, but Virgil didn’t tell Patton that. Patton looked behind him, quickly, fleetingly, before turning back to Virgil. “And I promise it’s just until your parents come for you.” Virgil eyed Patton, weighing the pros and cons.

“...Okay.” Patton held out a hand for Virgil, who tentatively took it.

“What’s your name, little one?”

“Oh, it’s um- it’s Virgil.” Patton smiled.

“That’s a very lovely name. It’s nice to meet you, Virgil.” Virgil smiled up at Patton, who started humming softly. It was a sad tune, as if Patton knew something that Virgil didn’t. Patton looked at Virgil with such a pain, but Virgil couldn’t figure out why.

As it turns out, Virgil’s parents never came.

**_Present Day_ **

“Roman you absolute buffoon! Get up!” This was followed by lots of loud banging, and the sound of metal against metal. Roman groaned and sat up. Remus was in their room, banging two pans together. Roman gave him an unimpressed look.

“Remus you moron. Dad’s going to have a fit if he hears you.” Remus rolled his eyes and tossed the pans to the side.

“Like I care what Dad says. He won’t do anything but yell at us.”

Roman raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? We’ll be stuck on cleaning duty for weeks! I’d rather we didn’t have to clean out the bathroom, wouldn’t you?” Remus laughed.

“I don’t see why you think cleaning out the bathroom is such a big deal. It’s not the grossest thing we’ve ever done. Like remember that time I convinced you to swallow a worm?” Roman sighed.

“I do. But as I recall, we were only eight at the time. We’re almost eighteen, Rem. Can’t you at least try to be a little bit more mature?” Remus giggled like a maniac, and stuck his tongue out.

“But that’s so boring! Where’s the fun in acting like a responsible adult? And besides, who’s going to stop us? There’s no one out here for miles!” Roman groaned and flopped back down in his bed. Why was he even trying at this point? It didn’t help that Remus was right. In all their lives in the forest, they had not once run into a single other person.

“Roman, get up! If we’re talking about Dad, you know the one thing he can’t stand is laziness. Let’s at least get our chores done so we can go and explore the forest.”

“What’s there to explore? Remus, we’ve traveled through and mapped out every inch of the forest. There’s nothing exciting left.” Remus rolled his eyes.

“That’s not true! The other day I went behind the waterfall, and I found something really interesting. I thought you’d like to come with me to check it out.” Roman perked up. His brother always knew exactly what to say to get him interested in this sort of thing. It was probably just another cool rock formation his brother found. Still, the promise of adventure was hard to pass up. So Roman reluctantly rolled out of bed.

“Fine, I’ll come with you. But only to keep you in check.” Remus’s smile grew ten times brighter, and he picked up the pots and hid them under the bed.

“Dad’s gonna be pissed when he finds those.” Remus shrugged. The two of them got dressed quickly, and headed downstairs. They heard humming. It was a familiar tune, one that they heard their father humming quite often. Though when they asked about it, their dad always grew silent and refused to answer them. They had learned to just not talk about it.

“Morning Dad!” They chorused. Their father looked up from cooking, and smiled, showing off his snake-like fangs.

“Good morning, boys.” The scales that covered half of his face glittered in the light that filtered in through the window. Their father had always had the scales, for as long as they could remember. It was another thing he refused to talk about, so they figured it was just a sorcerer thing. That was what their father was, after all. A sorcerer.

The twins knew that they weren’t Janus’s birth kids. They looked nothing like him. Their features were smooth and defined, while his were sharp and angular. Neither of the kids had brown eyes, or the same shade of brown hair as he did. But they didn’t question that he was their dad nonetheless. After all, he had raised them.

“Your eighteenth birthday is coming up.” Their father said, going back to cooking. “What would you like to do to celebrate?” Remus rolled his eyes and sat down at the table, resting his head on his arms.

“You know what I’d like to do. But you always shoot that idea down before it can even take flight.” 

Their father sighed. “Still have your heart set on the capital, don’t you?” Remus nodded. Roman groaned and tapped on the table with his finger.

“I don’t understand why you want to go there of all places. It’s a disaster. You’ve heard Dad, the place has been decimated from the power struggle and constant civil war that has started since the royal family died. Most of the people there are starving.” Their father stilled at the mention of the royal family. His face flickered with pain before it resumed his normal, cool, collected expression.

“Well, yes. Though there was no proof the princes ever died. They could very well still be out there, waiting for the right moment to return.” Their father set their breakfast out in front of them. “I suppose it is your eighteenth birthday. If you really want to, we can go to the capital. But we’ll have to be careful. There are scammers, pickpockets, and murderers everywhere in the streets.” 

Roman frowned. “And yet the guard does nothing to help the people.” Their father smirked. “If I were the king, I’d make the people the first priority. Guards would be trained less to fight and more to help.” Their father smiled gently.

“I’m sure you’d make a fantastic king.” His voice sounded forlorn, as if he was mourning a loss that had not yet come. But it was gone in a second. “Now, eat up. Then you can get your chores out of the way and go play wherever you’d like.” The boys dug into their breakfasts eagerly. When they were finished, they looked up at their father.

“Alright, so today you have to clean out your room, sweep the living room, and reorganize the shelf.” The twins looked at one another, surprised. Their father was never this light on the chores. He always worked them hard, so that they barely had any energy left to explore by the time they were done.

“That’s it?” Roman said, fidgeting with the fork in his fingers. Their father sighed.

“I’ll deal with the dishes and clean the rest of the house. I’m in a cleaning mood today anyway. Go on, before I change my mind.” The twins scrambled up the stairs to get started, missing the way their father sighed and ran a hand through his hair with a look of worry on his face.

The twins sped through their room, and Roman made Remus put the pans back. Their father was only mildly amused by the whole situation, and laughed when Remus sheepishly walked up to him and held the pans out. The twins were surprised. He seemed in a good mood today. They knew not to push it, though. All it took was one wrong sentence to turn his mood upside down.

Reorganizing the shelf, yes, shelf, they only had one, but it went from floor to ceiling and was covered in books, trinkets, and ingredients for potions, was the hardest task they had. Their father had shown them where everything went, but neither Roman nor Remus were ever ones for organization. They often took stuff off the shelf and didn’t put it back in the same place, meaning the shelf had to be constantly reorganized. The state the twins left it in was an absolute mess.

It took them an hour to get through the entire shelf, which was a lot longer than they had expected, or wanted, but it didn’t matter. Sweeping was an easy task that only took about fifteen minutes tops, and with their adrenaline and Remus’s excitement for this new thing he had to show Roman, they got it done in five. It was honestly quite scary how fast they managed to accomplish it. They may have missed a few spots.

After doing that, Remus put the broom away, just barely missing his brother’s head when he swung the handle around. Roman shouted at him to be more careful, but there was a smile on his face. Remus just stuck his tongue out and laughed. Their father was sitting on the couch, reading a book that he had already read maybe a hundred times. The twins knew that book was special to him for some reason, though he never shared anything about it other than “It was a gift from someone close to me.”

“We’re going out now.” 

Their father barely glanced up, nodding. “Be back by sunset.” The twins nodded. They knew the drill by now. There was really no need to remind them, but they didn’t mind the reminder. It was just one of the small ways their father showed his affection.

Remus ran out the front door, dragging Roman by the sleeve. They ran out of the garden, leaping over the fence (who has time for gates anyway?) and ran through the trees. They were familiar with the terrain by now, they had lived here all their lives. But even still, Roman stumbled on a root that he always forgot was there, and Remus nearly got whacked in the face by a low hanging branch that looked like it was about to fall off. Roman laughed as he watched his brother hastily duck out of the way but kept running.

It was a race. Assuming they both knew where they were headed, they would race one another everywhere. It was a game, they would test one another. Their sibling rivalry was quite unique, in that they were never fighting but at the same time never agreeing on anything either. It was somewhere in between that, with taunting and teasing, though it was never mean or malicious. The familiar trees passed in a blur. Eventually, they began to thin out, and then they ended, leaving a huge opening that was filled by a lake. A huge cliff jutted up at the end of the lake, and a waterfall flowed off the top of it. It always took their breath away for a few seconds every time they saw it.

Remus started walking towards the water, stopping at its edge. He peered down into it, as if it would have an answer to a question he was asking. Though what he was asking, neither of them knew. After a few seconds of him staring, Roman knew he wouldn’t stop unless someone did something about it.

“So, what was it you wanted to show me so badly?” That snapped Remus out of the trance the water seemed to put him in.

“Oh, yeah. Follow me.”

Roman snorted. “What do you think I’ve been doing?” Remus rolled his eyes and began walking along the water’s edge, slowly moving towards the waterfall. When they did reach it, eventually, Remus pulled him behind the waterfall. There was actually a ledge on the cliff, something Roman hadn’t noticed before, giving way for a small cavern on the backside of the waterfall. 

“Is this what you wanted to show me? It’s cool, I can see why you like it.” Remus shook his head.

“No, it’s not just that. I wanted to show you something else too.” He ran his hand along the smooth stone, walking up and down the wall. He stopped right at the center of the cavern, and seemed to trace his finger along something. Roman came up beside him and peered over his shoulder.

“It’s… some kind of rune.” Remus said. Roman nodded.

“I can see that.” Remus turned to Roman.

“What do you think it does?” Roman shrugged and looked back at the water that was pouring down. The loud sound made it almost impossible to hear anything, they had to practically shout just to get a simple sentence across.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” Remus bit his lower lip.

“I have.” Roman’s eyes widened and he stared at his brother. “I’ve been through all of Dad’s spell books. The ones he got from a store and the ones he made himself.” Roman nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve been through them too. I’ve never seen a rune like this in them though.” Remus shook his head.

“No, there’s one that he hasn't shown us. It was a handmade one, I could tell. The stitches were kind of messy and the binding was falling apart. Each page was hand written. He hid it underneath his bed. Like he didn’t want anyone to find it.” Roman looked at him like he was crazy.

“You went through Dad’s room!? Are you insane?” He hissed at Remus. “He’s gonna be so mad if he finds out!”

“Calm down. It was a while ago, he never found out, everything’s fine. But anyway, my point was, that I know this rune. It’s a spell that is used to create pocket worlds. You remember what a pocket world is, right?” Roman nodded. They were small dimensions that sorcerers created. They could be used for anything, though normally they didn’t have an entrance point in the physical world, you had to cast a spell every time to get there. Their father’s study was a pocket world.

“Well, whoever made the book modified the spell so that it had one solid entry point in the real world. One that stayed there indefinitely.” 

Roman made a face. “Why would anyone want to make that? It just sounds inconvenient.” 

Remus shrugged. “Apparently this version of the spell is less complicated. Normal pocket worlds are incredibly taxing for a sorcerer to maintain, and they close as soon as the person leaves them. These pocket worlds can stay open indefinitely, and while they’re super taxing the first time around when they first cast the spell, it doesn’t take anything out of them after that.” Roman nodded, looking thoughtful.

“Does it require a spell to open?” Remus shook his head. He placed his hand on the rune, each one of his fingers fitting into a specific groove, Roman noticed, and rotated his hand. To Roman’s surprise, the rune rotated with it. Remus removed his hand, and the whole thing glowed blue for a moment before it disappeared. The wall shimmered and rippled for a second, before vanishing completely. Inside, there was a short tunnel, with vines hanging down over exit, so that they couldn’t see through it. Remus stepped forward, but Roman grabbed his arm.

“Wait.” He said hesitantly. “How do we know we should go in there? The only sorcerer out here is Dad, and whatever this is, he clearly didn’t want us to find it. There could be something in there that he had to lock away because it was dangerous. Or maybe it’s something else, and he just doesn’t want us to know about it. Whose to say that he isn’t in there right now? He might get mad at us for going in there.” Remus pulled his arm out of Roman’s grasp.

“What Dad doesn’t know can’t hurt him. C’mon, Ro. I’m sure if it’s something that’s really dangerous he would have done a better job of hiding it. And besides, who’s going to tell him we were here, you?” Roman bit his lip and looked sheepishly at the ground, scuffing his foot against the stone floor. His brother was right of course. Still, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the whole situation. He swallowed his fear and looked back up at his brother.

“Alright, but if something goes wrong and Dad finds out, I’m blaming it all on you.” Remus grinned and shrugged.

“Sure, whatever. Now come on! I’m not staying here forever just waiting for you to gather up enough courage for this.” He grabbed Roman’s hand and pulled him through the tunnel. Roman noted the stone wall reappeared behind them, the rune still on the other side. At least they’d be able to get out when they needed to. Most pocket worlds seemed to follow real world day night cycles, but that wasn’t always the case. They would have to be careful to watch the time. They reached the end of the tunnel and brushed aside the vines.

  
  



	2. Two Strangers in a Strange Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman and Remus meet someone new

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Cursing, mentions of theft

“Morning kiddo!” Patton called brightly as Virgil trudged down the stairs. How his dad managed to stay this bright and happy this early in the morning was a mystery to him, and whenever he asked, he was just met with a grin and “I’m a morning person.”

His dad wasn’t just a morning person, he was mornings personified. Always bright and cheery, sometimes too much so, and he was always glowing. His piercing blue eyes that marked him as a sorcerer shone with excitement.

“Morning Dad.” Virgil muttered sleepily, fully coming down the stairs and sitting down at the breakfast table.

His dad smiled at him. “I’m going out to the market today, see if I can grab some sugar this time for baking. I’m not too hopeful, but it can’t hurt to try!” Virgil sighed fondly at his father figure. He was so optimistic about everything, even the current world situation, shitty as it was. There was a constant power struggle between the nobles, civil war had broken out everywhere, and there was still no solidified king, it changed every month or so. Sure, there were one or two houses of nobility that tried to remove themselves from the conflict, but the vast majority had become corrupt and were now just fighting for control of a land that was completely depleted of all its resources. 

“Well, you shouldn’t give up hope. It might happen one day.” He said, shrugging. Patton paused at the double meaning, his face filling with pain.

“Virge, honey, are you okay?” Virgil nodded.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, that got a little deeper than I had intended.” Virgil couldn’t help thinking of his parents. As a little kid, he had hoped that they would come for him, but they never did. Patton even went out for a couple weeks searching the forest. Virgil had gone with him, and they never found anything. Virgil didn’t remember everything about that night when Patton found him. He just knew that at some point his parents disappeared into the storm, he had gotten separated from his brother, and Patton had found him shivering from the cold.

Even if they were out there still somewhere, Virgil wouldn’t want to leave with them. He loved Patton, he had been more of a father to him than anyone, always being gentle and sincere, asking Virgil his opinion on everything, making him feel heard and listened to.

“Well, do you want to come with me?” He asked the same question every time he left. And every time, Virgil’s answer was the same.

Virgil shook his head. “I’m good.” Truth be told, he was scared of the outside world. The world’s situation was scary, and there were so many things that could hurt him. He was safe here, why would he ever want to leave for something else? Patton sighed and smiled.

“Well, thought I might as well ask you. Just in case you changed your mind. Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting to stay here, of course.” He offered a gentle smile and grabbed his cloak from the coat rack. Wrapping it around his shoulders, he looked back at Virgil.

“Please tell me you’ll at least go outside today. Promise you won’t stay in your room all day again?” Virgil looked sheepishly down at the ground.

“No promises.” He muttered, grinning. Patton rolled his eyes fondly and ruffled his hair.

“Alright, alright. Just leave the windows open, at least. I don’t want the tower looking completely unlived in when I get back.” Virgil sighed and pushed the biggest window’s shutters open. The sunlight flooded the room, lighting it up.

“There, happy?” Patton smiled, and it lit up the room almost as much as the window.

“Very. Thank you Virgil.” Virgil sighed and looked out at the landscape below them. It was quite a pleasant scene, with a small pond and giant stone walls taller than anyone could ever see over obstructing the view of whatever was around it. Patton explained that they didn’t actually live in the physical realm, and the walls were just the borders of their pocket universe. Virgil liked it, it made him feel safe and protected. He was a claustrophile, after all. That’s why his room was smaller, and always so dark.

“No problem, Pops.” Patton planted a quick kiss on Virgil’s head.

“I love you.”

“Yeah yeah, I love you too.” Patton smiled and left the tower. Virgil rested his arms on the window sill and sighed. His father had told him to go outside, but he really didn’t feel like it. On the other hand, he was extremely bored. There wasn’t much to do around here except bake (which was currently not an option due to aforementioned lack of sugar), read, paint, or sleep. He settled on reading, and pulled a book off the shelf. He had read it what felt like hundreds of times, but books were hard to come across. Besides, it was one of his favorites.

The story of two young men who fell in love, but were chased out because of their sexuality. They didn’t care, and they built a beautiful life together, making a home in the forest where no one would ever find them. Over time, the world began to change, and peoples’ view on homosexuality began to change. A movement was created in their honor, and their faces became symbols of gay love and pride. Still, they never moved away from the forest, and they lived out their lives peacefully, adopted two sons, and died of old age with the other by their side.

It was a fulfilling story, the kind of romance Virgil could get behind and the kind that, if he ever found someone, he would like to have as well. Just a nice, domestic lifestyle. Nothing wild or crazy, just the two of them by themselves. Though with the way his life was going, it didn’t seem likely.

He hummed to himself, a familiar lullaby that his father used to sing to him when he was younger. The lyrics ran through his head, even though they weren’t spoken aloud.

_ Blackbird singing in the dead of night. _

He turned the page and read through the next paragraph.

_ Take those broken wings, and learn to fly. _

_ All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise. _

Voices broke him out of his trance. Was Patton back already? No, that didn’t make sense. If Patton was home already that meant he would have been reading for hours. That would mean the sun should have been setting. A quick glance out the window told him that that was not the case. And not only that, but there was more than one voice, and none of them sounded like Patton. From up in the tower, Virgil couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they grew louder. They were getting closer. The voices sounded confused, amazed, and slightly nervous all at the same time. Virgil was good at picking up on peoples’ tones.

Cautiously, he set his book down. Whoever these people were, however they had found Virgil, he knew that they couldn’t mean well. People weren’t like that. They were rude and mean and cruel. Patton was the one exception.

Part of Virgil tried to tell him that he was being unreasonable. He hadn’t interacted with anyone other than Patton in almost fifteen years, how would he know what people were like? But that voice was quickly shut down by the memories of Patton telling Virgil sadly about the situation in the world. How people were turning to violence over the simplest things. A memory came back to Virgil, unbidden. He clung to… someone’s skirts, watching as one man knifed another and stole a loaf of bread. The woman whose skirt he was holding onto was screaming, and there was another boy, maybe two years older, hiding in the corner.

The voices pulled Virgil back into reality. It sounded like they were curious about the tower. Virgil caught one or two words.

“...Climb… tower… Dad?” That last one didn’t make any sense. The only dad Virgil knew was Patton, and that probably wasn’t who these people were talking about. Unless, of course, Patton had other children somewhere. He heard the door at the bottom of the tower open, and panicked. These people were coming up the tower! Virgil quickly hid behind the couch, which was about two feet from the wall. As the footsteps echoed, Virgil started to hear more and more of their conversation.

“What is this place?” One of them asked. The other made an “I don’t know” sound, and Virgil had to stop himself from making a surprised noise. Their voices were almost identical. Though the first one sounded more nasally than the second.

“Well, whatever it is, whoever made it, they probably don’t want us here. Maybe we should head back.”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared.”

“Of course I’m not! I’m just worried about invading privacy. This was clearly supposed to be a secret, I don’t think we should be here.”

“Just one quick look, Ro. Just one look and then we can head out. I’m just curious about what this place is.” The other voice, “Ro”, didn’t respond, and Virgil knew they had given in. Virgil held his breath as the two figures poked their head through the hole in the floor that connected the spiral staircase to the rest of the tower. They walked out, and Virgil blanched. How could two people look so similar? They were practically identical, just like their voices, though one of them had a wispy mustache and a sun bleached streak running through his hair.

It was scary, how much they looked like one another. What was going on? He had never seen people like this. Were they brothers? What was happening? The two heads looked around the room, as if fascinated by it. Why were they so interested in it? It’s just a tower, it was nothing special

“This is just like the fairytales, Rem.” One breathed. He must be “Ro.” The other rolled his eyes, his eyes roving across the landscape. Virgil ducked in order to avoid being spotted. “I’m serious!” Ro continued. “A mysterious tower in the middle of the woods, hidden by a magical spell? You can’t tell me this isn’t fairytale material.”

“Let’s just hope it isn’t one of the fairytales that ends tragically.” Virgil had to stop himself from snickering. At least they had a sense of humor. They began walking around, Ro fingering the books on the shelves, and Rem just wandering aimlessly around.

“Do you think anyone lives here?” One of them asked the other. The other, Rem, shrugged.

“It certainly looks like it. I mean, there are dirty dishes in the sink, the window is open, there’s even a book lying here on the couch.” Virgil held his breath as Rem walked up to the couch. He picked up the hand sewn book, looking over the cover. He opened to a random page, read through it, closed it, and set it back down.

“Well, if someone does live here, then we should leave before they get back. You said one look, we’ve looked, now let’s go.”

“Alright, fine. You win. If you’re that desperate to get out of here, then we can leave right now. It’s really a shame. This place is really pretty.” He picked up the book one more time. “I don’t suppose whoever lives here will miss one book, will they?” The other one rolled his eyes.

“Remus, that’s stealing. Put it back.” Remus, it seemed, turned to put the book back, and locked eyes with Virgil. Virgil’s heart rate accelerated, his panic going from fifty to a hundred in less than a second. Remus’s eyes widened, and Virgil just froze, having been caught.

“Roman…” Remus whispered. Still, Roman heard him, and turned back to him, annoyed. “I think I found the person who lives here.” Roman’s eyes widened.

“ _ What!? _ ” Virgil flinched at the harsh tone. He wasn’t used to that kind of voice, Patton’s had always been kind and gentle.

“Shh! Not so loud, Ro! You’re scaring him!”

“Scaring him- oh for heaven’s sake, Remus! He’s a person, not an animal.” Remus bared his teeth and rolled his eyes again.

“I know that! But if his expression has anything to say about it, your loud voice isn’t helping.” He hissed. Roman finally came up beside Remus and… damn he was pretty. Granted, Virgil didn’t have as much experience as he’d like in that department, but… from what he had seen… he wasn’t bad. Still, these were strangers who showed up out of nowhere and broke into his home. Virgil backed up as far as he could, his back pressed against the wall.

“Wh-who are you? What do you want from me?” He knew the answer to the first question, he had heard them using each others’ names, after all, but the second question hung in the air.

“I’m Remus, and this is my brother Roman.” Remus grabbed his brother’s arm and yanked him forward. “We um… we were just curious as to what this place was. We really didn’t have any idea there was someone living here.” Roman nodded, going along with his brother. Virgil wasn’t sure he entirely believed them, after all, how would they manage to find them out here? 

“Are all brothers this identical?” Virgil didn’t remember being this similar in looks to his brother, though that was over fifteen years ago, so who knows at this point?

“Nah, we’re twins.” Remus said. “Not that all twins are identical, some are fraternal. But we’re identical twins, so we look the same. I’d go into the difference and how they’re made, but I don’t think you’d really want to listen to that. Roman says it’s weird.”

“Because it is! No one wants to listen to you go on about that kind of thing, Rem! It’s disturbing that you even know it in the first place!” Remus shrugged.

“...Right.” Virgil said. “Anyway… how did you find me here? How did you get in?” Remus shrugged again.

“We saw the rune and I recognized it from a spellbook our dad has. He’s a sorcerer, by the way. Anyway, I saw it and knew how to unlock it, and we figured that our dad had some sort of secret he was keeping from us. So… are you his secret son or something?” Virgil tilted his head to the side.

“What’s your father’s name?”

“Janus.” Virgil shook his head.

“No, that’s not my dad, then. My dad’s name is-” He stopped himself. Roman and Remus looked at one another but didn’t push.

“So… if it’s not Dad, then that means… there’s another sorcerer in the forest!” Roman gasped. “How have we never heard of this before? Do you think that Dad knows about it?” Remus shrugged.

“Maybe we should ask him?” A memory came back to Virgil. He had asked his father about sorcerers, and if he knew any other sorcerers. Patton had smiled and told him that not all sorcerers were like him, and that some were mean and only wished to hurt other people.

“No!” He blurted out. The twins stopped talking to one another and turned to face him. “Don’t- don’t do that. Don’t tell him.” The twins looked at one another, and for a moment Virgil thought they were going to push him on that, but they just smiled.

“Okay, if you say so. Now, do you want to come out of there? It looks uncomfortable.” Virgil hesitated. Eventually he brought his knees up to his chest and shook his head. He was quite comfortable right where he was. “Alright, whatever makes you happy. Now, what’s your name?” Virgil bit his lower lip and hesitated. Did he want to give these near strangers his name? That didn’t seem like a good idea. They did give him their names, without a second thought, but Virgil didn’t fully trust that they had no ill intentions.

“You can call me…” What was something that sounded right? Something that described him? The fear of picking something they would laugh at or that would sound weird formed like a pit in his stomach, and that’s when he realized. “Anxiety.” He finished. Remus tilted his head to the side.

“Anxiety?” He snorted. Virgil curled in on himself tighter and blushed. “That’s a funny name.” Roman slapped his brother on the arm.

“Obviously it’s not his real name, dumbass! He probably doesn’t trust us with his real name yet.” He turned to Virgil and offered a charming smile, one that brought heat to Virgil’s face. “It’s a lovely name. Well then, Anxiety, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He held out a hand to shake, and Virgil hesitantly took it, unsure of what he was supposed to do. Roman gently moved it up and down, before Virgil pulled his hand away like it burned.

“So Anxiety… how long have you been here?” Virgil hesitated, thinking over what he should say and if that would be giving away too much information.

“For basically my whole life.” He said. “I don’t like to leave this place. The outside world is a very… scary place to be. It took my parents from me and separated me from my brother. I… I don’t know anyone out there, it’s always just been my dad and I.”

“So you’re adopted?” Virgil hesitated.

“Adopted means that you’re being raised by someone who isn’t one of your birth parents, right?” Remus pursed his lips.

“Yeah, I guess that’s a pretty good description of it. So you’ve never left this place? Well I mean, you had to at some point, didn’t you? When was the last time you left?” Roman gave his brother a warning glance.  _ Don’t make him uncomfortable. _

“I guess the last time I left was… fifteen years ago. It was to go on one last hunt for my parents. We… we went outside and Dad covered my eyes, gasping at something that I never saw. Now that I think about it, it was probably my parents’ corpses. They got swept over a cliff in a storm, or something like that. I don’t know, I was only four or five when it happened.”

“Oof. That’s rough.” Virgil nodded. “Well, we never knew our parents. Janus tells us that they’re dead, and that they were great people, but we never met them. The only thing we have to go off of is what Janus remembers of them. Which isn’t much. He only met them like once, and that was just a few days before they died. But I mean I guess we at least have each other.”

“Have you ever heard from or seen your brother since then? Have you even looked for him?” Remus asked. Virgil shook his head.

“We did look for him. We looked for weeks, but we never found him. It’s a shame, too. I would have liked for him to live with us. It could have spared him a whole lot of heartache. If he’s even still alive, that is.”

“You’ll find him one day. I know you will.” Roman placed a hand on Virgil’s shoulder. Virgil tensed.

“Not with the way my life is going. I’m too scared to even leave the tower most of the time! How am I ever going to gather enough courage to go out into the real world and look for him? I don’t even remember his name!” Roman removed his hand and bit his lip.

“Oh… sorry. I was just trying to be inspirational.”

“It’s okay. Sorry… I probably shouldn’t have gotten so heated like that. Besides my dad, you guys are the only people I’ve ever talked to in fifteen years. You can imagine I’m not great at social interaction.” 

“Hey, if it makes you feel better, you’re the first person excluding our dad and each other that we’ve interacted with for as long as we can remember. We have no idea how a normal conversation is supposed to go either.” Virgil laughed a bit, covering his mouth with his hand. He didn’t know why, but he was always self conscious about his laugh.

“So… we both grew up in the woods with hardly any human interaction, we’re both adopted and have sorcerer fathers, and we all have no idea how the hell we’re supposed to talk to people. Does that sound right?” Virgil nodded. “Well. I think I’d like to get to know you better. Would you be opposed to us coming around to visit you again sometime?” Virgil thought about it. This had been nice, even if it had only been for a short period of time.

“...No… I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if you came around every once in a while.” Roman flashed another smile. It was a really charming smile, one that coaxed a small smile out of Virgil in return.

“Oh my stars your smile is adorable!” Roman exclaimed, his eyes shining with adoration. Remus gave his brother a knowing look, and Virgil just stared at Roman, his face heating up the way it always did when his dad complimented him. He just didn’t know how to take a compliment. They talked for a while longer, and it felt nice, almost natural. Virgil felt himself relaxing a bit more and actually enjoying himself, which he had not expected.

“So… if you haven’t left in a while, would you like to come over to our place? Maybe for dinner? I’m sure our dad wouldn’t mind, he likes to cook.” Virgil briefly thought of Patton, but quickly shook his head, lowering his gaze.

“Um… sorry. I don’t know if I’m ready to… you know. We’ve only just met, and I don’t know how fast relationships are supposed to progress.” Roman’s eyes widened.

“Oh, it’s okay. You don’t have to, it was just a suggestion. Well, we should probably get going before your dad comes back or before our dad starts to wonder where we are.”

“O-oh! Right.” Glancing outside the window, he saw that the sun was beginning to get low in the sky. When had it gotten so late? Had they really spent that long talking? It hadn’t felt like it.

“We’ll see you later, then. Um… bye!” Roman and Remus got up and started down the staircase leading out of the tower. Roman waved over his shoulder with a grin that looked almost giddy. He listened to their footsteps as they descended the tower, then watched them as they headed towards the entrance. They were interesting people. Not that Virgil had a lot of experience, but still. He was pretty sure it wasn’t normal for humans to go so long without interaction so the fact that they were in the same awkward social position was quite surprising and almost concerning. Whatever, they seemed nice enough, and they weren’t going to give his father away, if their word could be believed, so this wasn’t the worst outcome.

He picked up the book he was reading and picked up where he left off. He glanced out the window every few seconds, knowing that his father would be home soon. He hoped that Roman and Remus didn’t run into him, that would be incredibly awkward. He didn’t know if he felt like explaining himself.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Patton emerged from the tunnel, and came towards the tower. Virgil sighed. 

“Hello, Virgil. I’m home!” Patton’s sing-songy voice rang up the stairs as he climbed them. “Anything exciting happen today?” He asked as he poked his head through the floor. Virgil hesitated. Should he tell Patton?

Virgil shook his head before he could overthink it. “Nah, just the same old.” Patton rolled his eyes fondly.

“I’m guessing that means you never ended up leaving the house.” Virgil blushed and stared at his feet, which was all the confirmation Patton needed. He threw his head back and laughed.

“I’m not surprised, kiddo. Will you go out with me tomorrow?” Patton asked this every time. And every time, Virgil’s answer was the same.

“Maybe if I feel up to it.” Patton sighed and ruffled Virgil’s hair. He doesn’t really like it when Patton does it, but he’s long since given up trying to get him to stop. Besides, it was a gesture of endearment, and what right did Virgil have to turn down Patton?

“Alright. Well, if you ever change your mind, let me know. I’d be more than happy to take you.” Virgil nodded, feeling his chest tighten in guilt. He had been impeding on Patton’s hospitality for nearly his entire life and he didn’t ever do anything to repay the favor. How could he turn down his father so easily and so quickly? Still, the fear of what lay outside the safety of the pocket world scared him more than anything else. Oftentimes he would have nightmares consisting of some outside force coming in and dragging him away, to the real world where all sorts of horrors were waiting for him.

It was just… way too much. He didn’t think he’d ever be ready to leave, and Patton seemed more than content with that, but it didn’t lessen the guilt of being so pathetic and worthless. Patton, who had by now learned to pick up on Virgil’s social cues, knelt down in front of Virgil and took his hands.

“Virge, it’s perfectly fine if you don’t feel comfortable leaving. The real world can be a very scary place. A lot of bad stuff is happening out there right now, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed by the thought of it. Sometimes the best solution is to get out of a bad situation, and stay away from things that stress you out. It doesn’t make you pathetic or worthless, it makes you human. Just like everyone else.” Virgil nodded and swallowed his guilt. It made his father upset, and Virgil hated seeing him upset.

“...Yeah. Yeah, okay. Thanks Dad.” Patton pressed a kiss into Virgil’s forehead, and Virgil looked down at the ground.

“No problem, kiddo. I’m going to go get changed, and then maybe we can do a bit of gardening together before the sun sets completely.”

“Sounds good. I love you.” Patton stood up, and looked at him, his eyes soft.

“I love you too, Virgil.”

  
  



	3. Sorcerers, Spellbooks, and Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Cursing

“-And his eyes Rem! They were so deep and mysterious, and they were just absolutely gorgeous, and his skin? Oh my lord his skin was just so fair, he looked like a delicate little flower. And don’t even get me started on his-”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, we get it, Ro. You’re gay, you’re smitten, and I’m getting sick of it. He’s pretty, I’ll give you that, but honestly, you don’t even know the guy. He seemed pretty timid, and didn’t you always say you wanted someone who could keep up with your adventures?” 

Roman paused for a moment before sighing dramatically and pouting. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t really know him. But I think that I really could like him. He seems smart. Sassy. Not afraid to stand up for himself.” Remus snorted. How his brother had even gotten to that conclusion, he had no idea.

Remus placed his hand on Roman's shoulder. “Even still, he doesn’t seem like the adventurous type. I doubt he’d want to go on those little quests with you.” Roman deflated.

He shrugged Remus's hand off. “Well maybe my taste in men has changed.”

“Since when?”

“Since a few hours ago.” Remus sighed exasperatedly. He had dragged his brother out here in hopes of finding something cool, and yeah, they had found it. It’s not everyday you come across a pocket world in the middle of a forest. But all his brother talked about was the boy in the tower. He  _ was  _ cute, but come on! Was that seriously all he was thinking about? He wasn’t even mentioning the fact that there was  _ another sorcerer in the woods.  _ Or that they found a  _ random pocket world in the middle of literal nowhere. _ That should have been huge, but Roman couldn’t shut up about how pretty this boy’s hair was.

“How old do you think Anxiety’s dad is?” Remus said, kicking a small stone.

Roman stopped talking about Anxiety (finally), and tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, sorcerers can’t die of old age. They age until they’re what, in their late twenties? Early thirties? And then they stop aging altogether. So how old do you think Anxiety’s dad really is? Is he older or younger than our dad?” 

Roman pressed his lips into a thin line. “That’s kind of hard to tell, especially when you consider the fact that we don’t actually  _ know  _ how old Dad is. We know he’s been alive for hundreds of years, but I mean… he’s never told us his exact age. But that’s a good question. Maybe the next time we go back we can ask Anxiety to see if he knows.”

“For someone who was originally reluctant to ‘trespass,’ you sure seem eager to go back there.” 

Roman looked down at the ground, his face bright red. “Well- I…” 

Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. “It’s fine. It's not like you can help it if you’re too gay for your own good.” Roman made an offended noise. He smacked his brother on the arm, and Remus yelped, scowling at his brother. “Deny it all you want, it doesn’t make it any less true!” And that’s how Remus ended up running for his life from his brother.

They made it back to their cottage just as the sun had completely disappeared. The moon was starting to appear over the horizon, and they cautiously opened the door, knowing the storm they were in for. Their father hated when they were late, it worried and stressed him to no end. They were not looking forward to the lecture they were about to receive. Their father was pacing back and forth in the living room, and looked up at the sound of the door being opened.

Relief flooded through his features, and his posture relaxed for a split second, before it stiffened again. 

His relief turned to annoyance, and he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “What am I going to do with you boys?” Roman scuffed his foot against the floor, looking rather sheepish. Remus looked down, his face tinged red with embarrassment. “Do you have any idea how worried I was? This was cutting it pretty close, even for you. If you had been out for much longer, I would have gone out and looked for you!” That would not have been pleasant. On the rare occasions that they don’t make it back before sundown, their father would go out and search for them. How he always found them was a mystery, probably something magic related, but whose to say?

Roman sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry. We kind of lost track of time. At least we came back though, right?” Their father sighed and muttered something under his breath.

He looked up at them and closed his eyes for a minute, staring at the ceiling as if thinking it over. “Alright, I suppose it’s forgivable this time, considering you were out only a few minutes after the sun had fully set, and you weren’t hurt.” He sighed. “Just please try to keep a better eye on the time.” Roman and Remus nodded eagerly. It seemed they were being left off the hook, and they weren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Just come eat with me. You didn’t come home from lunch, so I can only imagine you’d be hungry.” The boys smiled and ran over to the table, sitting themselves down. Truth be told, they were both absolutely famished.

“So, what were you up to that made you so late?” Their father inquired. The two brothers shared a look. Should they tell their father what went down? Roman decided that… maybe it would be okay to share a few of the details. Not all of them, just a few. Remus seemed to understand.

So they recounted some of their tales, leaving out the magical parts such as the pocket world and the fact that there was another sorcerer in the woods. They just talked about how they met another boy in the forest who lived close to the edge of it. Their father listened with an unreadable expression as Roman went on and on about how beautiful the boy was, ranting to them about how absolutely enchanting he was. Remus knew what their father must be thinking, it was something Remus had been asking himself.

_ Who was this random boy and what was he doing all by himself in the middle of the forest? _ It was a reasonable concern, after all, it wasn’t everyday you just ran into someone like that.

Their father seemed intrigued by their story, and twirled his fork around. “Well he certainly seems interesting. Perhaps you should invite him over sometime.” The twins shared another look.

Roman was the first to speak. He seemed to be the one who did most of the talking anyway. “We did, but he was kind of shy. He’s not ready for that yet.” Their father placed his fork down on the table gently.

“Of course not, you only just met. I meant later, once you have gotten to know him better. You don’t want to overwhelm him immediately.” The fact that he knew they were going to meet up again... their father knew them all too well. Roman looked down sheepishly at the table.

“Yeah I guess that was kind of forward, wasn’t it? Oh god, he’s probably so confused.” Their father chuckled.

“I can only imagine. Now, finish eating before your food gets cold.”

To Virgil’s surprise, the twins kept coming back. Roman and Remus were quite interesting people, and it sounded like there was a lot that they could be doing, but they opted to continue coming back to visit Virgil. After the first time, they never pushed him to leave the tower, though they did insist that he come outside and actually enjoy the sunlight every once in a while. Roman cooed over Pat’s flower garden, and admired the selection of flowers. 

Remus liked rolling around in the mud. Virgil is pretty sure he saw him eating it once too. He was really weird, but who was Virgil to judge? The two of them acted so casual around Virgil, as if there was nothing weird about the circumstances in which they met. Maybe there wasn’t, maybe this was just a normal thing in human society. How would Virgil know? He hadn’t left this place in fifteen years.

Roman always made small remarks about Virgil, always complimenting his hair or his eyes, and just generally flattering him every chance he got. Virgil wasn’t sure how to handle it. Was he supposed to be flattered? Was the heat that rose to his face every time Roman said something like that natural? What was he supposed to do when this happened?

He felt embarrassed asking, because maybe it was common knowledge. These boys seemed to know a lot more about how friendships were supposed to work than Virgil, even though they insisted that they didn’t really.

Virgil still didn’t tell Patton about them. He was sure that Pat would freak out if he heard that others had found their way in. It would be a fair reaction, maybe Virgil should be a bit more wary of them, but they really didn’t seem like they wanted to hurt him. It was… nice having others to talk to. He didn’t realize how lonely he really had been up until now.

Before, he would enjoy the peace and quiet, read, and do whatever else he could to keep himself busy until his dad got back. Now, however, he couldn’t stand being alone. When his father left, he started wishing desperately for him to come back, to fill the empty space with his voice and cheerful demeanor. Whenever the twins came, Virgil would visibly perk up, and sometimes he would leave the tower just to meet them.

When the twins left, he felt an emptiness inside of him, a hollow feeling that didn’t fully go away until he saw them again. The time in between, when Virgil was the only one in the pocket world, was absolute torture. The silence that had once been comforting now felt crushing, suffocating, and he would wish for Roman’s dramatic singing or Remus’s high pitched giggling or Patton’s gentle soothing. He didn’t know why the change had come so suddenly, but it was strong enough that it almost made him want to leave the world and go with Patton, or maybe go with Roman and Remus back to their place for once. Almost.

The fear of the outside world, and the fear of being hurt or losing something else ran too deep, and he could never find it in himself to gather enough courage to ask to go with Patton, or to go with the twins to have dinner with them.

And every time they left, panic overtook him, as well as the overwhelming fear that they would never come back.

One morning, Patton had mentioned that he would probably be home earlier than usual, because he didn’t have as much to do. Virgil was glad, the relief of not being alone as long was enough to make his knees buckle beneath him.

Patton caught him, and looked down in concern.  “Are you okay, kiddo? Are you sick?” Virgil shook his head, giving Pat his best smile. “I can stay home if you aren’t feeling well.” He offered.

“No!” Virgil shouted. Patton looked physically taken aback by this, and maybe just a tiny bit hurt. Virgil never raised his voice. He immediately cringed, trying to get Patton’s shocked face out of his head. “I-i’m sorry. I’m okay, I guess I’m just tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night. You can go do whatever it is that you need to do, I’ll be fine here.” Patton didn’t look convinced.

“Are you sure?” He tilted his head to the side, concern still displayed across his face. Virgil nodded.

“Yeah, I don’t want to be a burden for you.” Patton scowled, and Virgil bit his lower lip. If there was one thing Patton hated, it was when Virgil was self deprecating.

“Virge we’ve talked about this. You could never be a burden to me. I just wanna make sure you’re okay.” He placed a hand on Virgil’s shoulder and gave a soft, comforting smile. 

Virgil found himself smiling back. “I’ll be fine. You can go do whatever it is that you do during the day. I’ll be here, just like always.” Patton sighed.

“Alright, if you’re certain. You know how to reach me if you need to.” He was of course talking about the mirror hanging next to one of the windows. Patton had a small, pocket sized one to match, and they could communicate through them. Virgil had never used it before, it was more a precaution than anything.

Like always, Patton pressed a kiss into Virgil’s hair, before walking towards the staircase.  “I love you.”

“I love you too.” And then he was gone. Virgil sighed and sank down on the couch. Now he just had to wait for the twins to arrive. The loneliness settled in once again, and he took a deep breath. It would be fine. They’d be here in two hours, tops. If they weren’t, then they weren’t coming. His heart ached at the thought of them not coming. Why? How had he gotten so attached to them in, like, the two weeks that they had been visiting him? Had it really only been two weeks? It felt so much longer than that… He didn’t know how he had lived without them for so long. How had this… been considered comforting before?

He picked up the book that he had been trying to get through for ages. He hadn’t really managed to make any progress in it, the twins had taken up most of his time. Not that he minded, and it wasn’t really their fault anyway. It was his, for not being able to focus enough when they weren’t there to read. Really, why couldn’t he focus?

He groaned and opened the book back up. The words just blended together on the page, none of the information that he was supposed to be taking in was registering in his head, and he kept glancing out of the window.

Finally, he heard their voices, and he quickly shut the book (he wasn’t getting anywhere anyway, so why should it matter?) and tossed it onto the couch beside him, before running down the staircase as fast as he could without tripping.

Throwing open the door, he stumbled out onto the grass, which tickled his bare feet. He had shoes, Patton always made sure that he did just in case he ever changed his mind, but he never wore them. They just made his feet feel cramped.

Roman and Remus’s faces split into identical grins (though Remus’s was a bit wider, giving it that unnerving quality that Remus was for some reason proud of). 

“Hey emo!” Remus called. Virgil rolled his eyes at the nickname. He didn’t even know what an emo was supposed to be, but it didn’t matter, he supposed. Right now, what mattered was that they were here and the suffocating emptiness inside of him was slowly disappearing. 

“Hello Anxiety.” Roman said warmly, flashing one of his charming smiles. Virgil looked down and smiled back, not wanting to meet his gaze for some reason. There was just something… regal about the way he held himself. It almost made Virgil feel like he was unworthy of being in his presence, though any attempts at self deprecation with these two had quickly been shut down.

“Hey Roman.” He muttered, still not meeting his gaze. He was so close to Virgil, only a couple of feet away.

“I’m guessing you still haven’t changed your mind about coming to visit?” They asked every time, probably just to be polite, but Virgil never changed his answer. Virgil just shrugged and looked back at Remus, who had run past them and was now trying to climb the tower from the outside using the vines that grew all over it and the uneven stones. Roman looked at him with fond annoyance.

“He’s going to break something.”

“Are you talking about breaking himself, or the tower?” Virgil asked.

Roman snickered. “Both, I guess. And then Dad will get mad at me for letting him do something like that, even though we both very well know that there is no controlling Remus.” Virgil threw his head back and laughed, and when he stopped, Roman was staring at him.

“What?” The way he said it was almost snapping, but it was more embarrassed, and softer than a snap. 

Roman blinked a couple of times, then looked away, a small grin and a rosy blush on his face. “Nothing. I was just thinking about how pretty you look when you laugh.” How the fuck was Virgil supposed to respond to that? Why did Roman keep complimenting him on everything? He really wasn’t that great.

“U-uh um- well- you look… uh…” God what was he doing? He probably sounded like a complete idiot right now! Roman just laughed. Virgil heard a thump and then an “oof,” and turned around to see Remus sprawled out on his back. Virgil snorted at the sight.

“Oh shut up, Emo nightmare!” Remus called backwards. He got up, dusted himself off, and immediately went back to trying to climb the tower.

“Is he always like this?” Virgil jerked his thumb back at the disaster that was Remus. 

Roman sighed. “Unfortunately. He’s very persistent. Once he has his mind set on something he won’t let it go, not until he’s satisfied. And the only way for him to be satisfied is for him to complete the task at hand. So he’ll keep doing that until it’s time for us to go home. And then he’ll do it again when we come back. So… yep.”

Virgil smirked. “Well, perseverance is a good thing.”

Roman groaned. “Not when it results in injury or death!” Virgil giggled, and Roman grinned. Virgil looked back at Remus, and sighed.

“Well, maybe we should head inside?” He suggested. 

Roman shrugged. “I mean, if you want to. But it’s such a nice day out, so why not just say out here while we can?”

“The weather’s always like this here, you know that.” Virgil said, rolling his eyes. 

Roman laughed. “Well maybe I just want an excuse to see your features glow in the sunlight.” The heat was back. Oh god, why now of all times? Couldn’t it wait? Why won’t it go away!? Virgil scrubbed at his face. With his pale skin it had to be visible.

“Are you okay? Your face looks red.” Roman asked, tentatively reaching out a hand. When Virgil didn’t move away, he placed his hand on Virgil’s cheek. Virgil found himself subconsciously leaning into it.

“Yeah I’m okay. And I guess if you really want to stay out here we can. I think my dad keeps a picnic blanket somewhere in the tower, so I can go get that.” Roman smiled, and Virgil thought he might just die on sight.

“Sounds good.” He responded, and it took a minute to register what Roman had just said. Virgil turned and walked as fast as humanly possible to the door and then to the staircase. He ran up the stairs, and once up in the tower, he took a moment to press his face into the couch and scream. After that embarrassing moment, he went over to the kitchen and turned on the sink, splashing cold water on his face. What was going on with him?

He remembered the blanket, and that he couldn’t be up here too much longer or Roman would start to get worried, so he wandered over to one of the cabinets and opened it up. Sure enough, Patton’s favorite blanket to use for picnics was there. It was a checkerboard pattern, and its tones were light blue and gray. Those were his father’s favorite colors.

Grabbing it and shutting the wooden door, he leaned out and looked down at the ground, at Roman. Roman really needed to give himself more credit, his red hair shone brighter than any fire, his green eyes glittered in the sun. He talked about Virgil being beautiful? Has he never looked in a mirror?

Virgil shook his head to snap himself out of it. He really shouldn’t be thinking these sorts of things, the twins would probably think it was really creepy.

“I got the blanket!” He called. He heard Remus give a shout, and then hit the ground hard.

“What the hell, Anxiety! You made me lose my grip!” 

Virgil smirked. “Sorry. Maybe you should stop trying to climb the tower.”

“Never!” Virgil sighed and threw the blanket down. It landed directly on top of Remus, who let out an indignant squawk. Virgil tipped his head back and laughed, then looked back down at the lumpy form of Remus still lying on the ground with the blanket covering him. He clearly wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon, so Roman marched up to him and yanked the blanket off.

Virgil watched the twins’ playful banter for another moment, before Roman looked up and noticed him staring.

“Are you coming back down, Anx?” Virgil blinked. Oh that’s right, he had to leave the tower again.

“Yeah, I’ll be down there in a second.” He left the window and started down the spiral staircase. Briefly he imagined himself losing his balance and falling, before he took a deep breath. That wasn’t realistic, there was a very slim chance of that ever happening. He was just being para- expressing an unhealthy amount of concern. It was okay to be on guard. That was what Patton always told him, anyway.

He reached the bottom of the staircase, and pushed open the door into the fresh air. Roman was waiting, and he smiled when Virgil stepped out. Remus was spreading out the blanket, and the two of them walked over and sat down. They didn’t talk, just sort of sat in silence for a few moments, laughing as Remus tried one last time to climb the tower and fell off. Finally, he seemed to realize he wasn’t going to get anywhere, and came over, flopping down on the blanket and taking up ninety percent of it, his left leg resting on Roman’s lap.

Roman shoved the leg off, and shifted his position, scowling at his twin brother. Virgil laughed, it was nice seeing the two of them interact like this. They seemed so at ease with one another, and it made Virgil feel a little bit more relaxed around them.

He didn’t notice what time it was, nor realize that his father would be coming home soon. They spent the time just talking about nothing like they usually did, not really doing anything. They could sit there and do nothing for hours. Virgil was curious about their lives, and they were curious about Virgil’s, so they traded information with one another. None of them noticed as another figure entered the world and walked through a tunnel. A sharp gasp made Virgil freeze.

Slowly, he turned his head, hoping against hope that it wasn’t who he thought it was. Unfortunately, the universe hates him, so there was Patton, standing with a basket on the ground, its contents spilling everywhere. Virgil opened his mouth to try and explain what was going on, but nothing came out. What was he supposed to say? How could he admit to his father, the man who had raised him, that he had been meeting with these people for weeks, and that he had been hiding it the entire time?

The twins looked confused and lost, which made sense, considering they had no idea who they were looking at.

“...Kiddo?” Oh god his voice. Why? It was so lost, so confused, so helpless! Where was he supposed to start? What was he supposed to tell him?

“Dad! You- you’re home… early…” Virgil realized he should have seen this coming. Patton had told him that he was coming home sooner than he usually did, how had he forgotten it that quickly? “Listen- I- I can explain everything.” Patton was staring at the twins. They shifted uncomfortably under his scrutinizing gaze. Roman offered a small wave.

“Honey… who are these people?” His dad asked. He didn't seem mad, but his father was rarely ever mad. Roman cleared his throat, and Patton shifted his attention to him. Roman cringed.

“M-my name is Roman. This is my twin brother Remus.” Patton’s eyes, which were already as wide as dinner plates, somehow managed to get even wider.

“Roman… and… Remus… but that’s… that’s impossible! You’re supposed to be…” He trailed off, and started thinking. Virgil was starting to get a bit worried. His dad never hid his emotions well, and now anger was quickly building.

“We’re supposed to be what?” Roman interrupted his thoughts. Patton looked up, the storm on his face quickly disappearing. It was as if it was never there in the first place. He shook his head.

“Oh, it’s not important. It’s nice to meet you both. How did you find us all the way out here?” The shift was so quick the boys blinked, physically reeling back as if struck. Virgil didn’t blame them. These kinds of shifts in attitude weren’t too uncommon when it came to his dad, but the first few times they had happened had been rather jarring to him.

“Well, we grew up in these woods. And we… well, Remus, found this place behind the waterfall. We were curious, so we went in, and then… we met Anxiety.” Patton nodded. He sent a questioning look to Virgil about the name choice, and Virgil sent him a pleading one to keep up with the fake name.

“How did you know how to activate the rune? You two don’t seem like sorcerers.” Remus shrugged, blushing.

“Well I saw it in one of our dad’s spellbooks?” Patton sucked in a breath. Virgil gave him a questioning look that was received with a shake of his head.

“Okay… well, it’s lovely to meet you. I’m guessing since Vi-.... Anxiety is so comfortable around you, that means you’ve been coming around for a while.”

“Only about two weeks, but yeah, I guess so.” Patton offered a gentle smile. The twins seemed slightly more relaxed now, but it was hard to forget the quick mood swing and unusual behavior. Virgil knew better than to press for details. Not that he would get in trouble, it’s just that Patton would dance around the answer and avoid actually disclosing any information. He had long since given up whenever this happened, which wasn't too often, but still.

“Well, that’s lovely! Why didn’t you tell me about them, dear?” He was avoiding using Virgil’s real name. Relief washed through him. He wasn’t going to reveal his real name to the twins before he was ready. He was using his fake name, and Virgil had never felt happier that his dad was such a kind and caring individual. 

“I guess I just thought you might get mad at me? Or you might get scared and move the pocket world entrance?” Patton smiled gently, picking up his basket and loading the contents back in.

He walked over to Virgil and knelt down on the blanket, taking one of his hands. “Tell me, have I ever gotten mad at you before?” Virgil thought about it before. No, he had never really gotten mad. There had been times when he was disappointed, but he never got mad at Virgil, he never yelled at him.

“...No…” He said carefully. 

Patton smiled encouragingly. “And have I ever reacted to something without knowing all of the facts first?” 

Virgil shook his head, looking down. “I guess not… yeah, I guess I was just being paranoid again.” Patton shook his head, and kissed his forehead.

“It’s alright, I’m not mad, I’m just glad you managed to make a couple new friends. I wish you would have told me about them sooner though, we could have been having guests over for dinner this whole time!” Virgil laughed. Of course his dad would say that.

Patton turned to face the twins and smiled. “Would the two of you like to stay over for the night?” Roman and Remus exchanged glances.

“We’d love to, but we’re always back home before sundown. We don’t want our dad to get worried and go searching for us, we’ve never had to do that since we were little and Roman scraped his knee on a rock and couldn’t walk.” Remus said, smiling at the memory. Roman stuck out his tongue, and Remus laughed.

“Oh, well I could go tell your father where you were. It wouldn’t be much trouble, I know these woods like the back of my hand.”

“I guess you could… though, we would have to tell you where the cottage is, though the location is pretty hard to describe since it’s literally all trees.” Roman was speculating. He had already accepted the offer in his mind. He was just working out the details. 

Patton offered a sunny smile. “It’s alright, I’m sure I can figure it out. What do you say?” The twins exchanged glances, then looked back at Virgil, who shrugged. He thought his dad was acting a bit weird, but there was nothing particularly… off about his behavior. Nothing Virgil could name, anyway.

“Alright, let’s do it!” 

Patton grinned. “Great! Then I’ll go inform your father. Again, it was very nice to meet you.” Patton got up and left, leaving the three boys alone in the realm.

“You know, by the time he finds the cottage, it will probably already be sundown.” Roman commented. Virgil shrugged.

“I guess… Do you want to help me make dinner?”


	4. Old Scars That Never Fade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton and Janus have a... "Discussion" about the twins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Mildly unsympathetic Patton. He's not intentionally unsympathetic, and he has a good reason to be angry but... some of his actions could be considered mildly unsympathetic. Cursing.

Janus paced up and down. The sun had long since set, yet Roman and Remus had not returned. He trusted his boys to be back by now, and they always were. So where were they? What was going on? Did something happen to them? The thought made his chest constrict. They could be in danger and he wouldn’t know! He decided he couldn’t take it anymore. He really needed to make sure they were alright. Not just for himself, but for everyone else. If something happened to them, it could be devastating to the kingdom. He needed for them to stay alive. No, more than that, he needed them. Period. They were his source of light in the darkness, they were his beacons of hope when the world seemed hopeless. They were his children. And he was their father. It was up to him to keep them safe until they were ready.

He remembered the boy they talked about, the one they had met in the woods. They met up with him almost every day now, and Roman seemed to grow more smitten with each passing day. Did he have something to do with their disappearance? Was he in trouble too?

Quickly, he grabbed his cloak, his hat, and his gloves, pulling them all on. Looking in the mirror, he looked exactly like the villain he used to be. God, he hated it. But the cloak was heavy and warm, and he wasn’t going out into the freezing night without it, especially with this stupid curse. Grabbing a lantern off of the dining room table, he snapped his fingers. The candle inside of the lantern lit up, and he could feel the small amount of warmth it radiated.

He turned to the door, and took a deep breath. He could do this. He didn’t like to be out in the woods at night, not since… well… nevermind. It’s not that anything could really hurt him out there, (but it certainly could hurt the twins, an annoying voice whispered in his mind) but the fact of the matter was that the night reminded him too much of nights he used to spend on the roof or by a pond with… 

The door flew open with a bang. Janus jumped and let out a yelp that he would never admit to making later. At first he wondered if the boys had come home, but it wasn’t Roman or Remus who was standing in the doorway. 

Janus couldn’t believe his eyes. Staring at him, with murder in their eyes, was a face that he hadn’t seen in a very long time. Someone he hadn’t planned on seeing ever again, though he hadn’t been against it. Fifteen years. Fifteen years was the last time he had seen that face, and it held the same contempt for him that it did back then.

“...Patton?” Patton released a ball of blue energy which crashed into him, sending him flying across the room. He hit his head on the wall, making him dizzy and disoriented. He hissed in pain, but silently thanked whoever was listening that he hadn’t collided with the shelf. That would have been even more of a disaster.

“What are you planning, Janus?” Patton hissed. What was going on?

“What?” Janus stood, rubbing the spot on the back of his head that had collided with the wall. Ouch, that was going to leave a mark.

“You know exactly what I mean!” Patton said, baring his teeth and almost hissing. Janus had never seen him this angry before. Even that night, fifteen years ago, his face had not held this much rage. Perhaps it was because back then, the anger was tempered by fear. He had been afraid of Janus back then, and Janus had thought that was the worst feeling in the world. He was wrong. This time, there was no fear. And that made it all the more terrifying to Janus.

“I’m afraid I don’t. You’ll have to be a bit more specific.” This only seemed to incense Patton more, and Janus’s fingers twitched at his side, ready to summon a shield should Patton attack him again. 

Patton noticed, of course he did, and tensed. “Don’t play dumb with me. The princes, what the hell are you planning with them?” Janus blinked. Of course that’s what this was about. Clearly, Patton had run into them. But… how? 

“I’m not planning anything. I simply removed them from a bad situation.” It was a weak defense, even he knew that. 

Patton growled at him and took a step closer. “I thought you were supposed to be a good liar, Janus. That night, fifteen years ago? You said that you were going to kill them. So imagine my surprise when they show up at my doorstep now almost fully grown.”

His doorstep? _His_ doorstep? How? “Your doorstep? That’s impossible, they have never left the woods in their lives.”

Patton rolled his eyes. “You really think I ever left the woods? Where else would I _go,_ Janus. Not many places are completely accepting of sorcerers.” Janus’s eyes widened. No, he had checked. Every inch of the forest, he had scoured them in hopes of finding Patton. But no, he had had no luck.

“Where are they?” Janus growled, returning to the subject at hand.

“You really think I’m going to tell you? You’re a monster Janus, whatever you have planned for them, I won’t let you go through with it.” 

“Please, you have to tell me where they are!” He pleaded. The desperation in his eyes seemed to take Patton off guard. “I need to know. Are they safe? Please, at the very least, are they safe?” 

Patton didn’t seem to know what to say to that. “...Yes. Safer than they have ever been with you.” Relief flooded through Janus. He knew that if Patton had them, then yes, they were most likely safe, but the confirmation made it all the more real. At least they weren’t in danger of any sort.

“But you still haven’t answered my question. What were you planning to do with them? You wouldn’t keep them alive if you didn’t have plans.”

Janus shook his head. “Is it really so hard to believe that maybe I’ve changed?” Patton scoffed, and Janus had to admit that yeah, that probably didn’t sound very convincing coming from him. Janus sighed. “I couldn’t go through with it. I- I was going to do it, but I couldn’t. You left, and I was in a very vulnerable position and I just couldn’t- couldn’t bring myself to do one more thing that would leave another stain on my conscience.” 

Patton didn’t look convinced. “Oh really? I find it hard to believe that after everything else you’ve done, killing children is where you draw the line.” Janus chewed on his bottom lip. Patton was right, of course, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. “Did you even tell them who their real parents were?” Janus looked down at the ground, unable to meet Patton’s eyes. “That’s what I thought.”

“Patton please-”

“ ** _Shut_** **_up_**!” He roared. Janus’s mouth clicked shut.

Patton couldn’t believe this! He knew that Janus was a conniving liar, but he really couldn’t believe that he was trying to pull the “changed man” act! What was wrong with him? Did he honestly think he could fool him?

“How dare you! How dare you try to lie to me about what you’re doing! I know you, Janus! I know what you’ve done! I tried to put it aside, tried to convince myself that you were a good person, that everything you did had a reason, but the truth is so much more simple! You’re a rotten, soulless,  _ monster _ !” The dejected, almost fearful look on his face was so pathetic it almost looked genuine. Even though Patton knew there was no way it was, there was still that tiny twinge. He did his best to suppress it.

“Patton, you’re not listening to me! I’m-” Patton didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence. He flung another ball of blue energy at him, sending him sprawling on the ground. Patton summoned another one, that hovered above his hand. He looked at Janus, and wondered briefly if things could have been different. Once upon a time they had been happy together. Maybe if it wasn't for that night... He shook his head, clearing it of the thought. This was how it was supposed to be. His only regret was not leaving sooner. At least, that's what he told himself.

“I thought that maybe I could teach you a lesson. That you would never do something like this again. But it seems the scales weren’t enough. Maybe I should do something a bit more… drastic?” He almost sounded like Janus now. The realization hit him like a cart.  _ He  _ was acting like  _ Janus.  _ The roles were completely flipped here. The fear in Janus’s eyes was all too familiar. Memories played in his head on a loop, flashing through their many, many years spent living together.

The bright ball of energy dimmed a bit, and shrank in size in response to his hesitance. Janus was staring at him, not responding, not attacking him, not making any move to hurt him. He opened his mouth, and Patton tensed. What would he do now? Janus was a master at sensing weakness and exploiting it.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never lied to someone to protect them.” Whatever Patton had been expecting, it hadn't been that. An image of a tiny Virgil flashed through his mind. That night, the same night he fled from Janus, he had found him, shivering and wet on the forest floor, crying out for his parents, his brother, and so hopeless, so utterly lost.

That storm… the storm that killed Virgil’s parents… it was so clear now. The guilt of the truth had weighed him down so strongly. Before, he had really hidden it to protect him. To keep him safe, to save him from the grief, but as time went on, it was his own guilt, his own fear that kept him from doing it. The magic in his hand died out, a flame extinguished by hypocrisy.

Janus sat up, watching the pain cloud Patton’s face. Would he take advantage of it? Manipulate him so that Patton felt no choice than to fall back into his arms?

He still said nothing, though, and Patton furrowed his brow, still staring at the ground. “But… what are you protecting them from?” He was acting so... so different. Was it possible that he really had changed?

“Have you even met Roman? If I told them the truth, they’d run off and try to take back their throne on their own. It’s better to wait until they’re ready, even if it means they’ll hate me for it.” Patton couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was this even really Janus? was he being genuine? He didn't get a chance to find out.

Patton fled through the doors, back into the woods. The world was spinning around him, he could barely find it in himself to stay upright. How could he be so stupid? Janus was just playing to his sensitivities, like he always did before. But… What if he was telling the truth? What happens then? Where do they go from here? Memories came back to him all at once. Suddenly, it was fifteen years ago. He was running from Janus and his stupid plans again. He wasn’t going to sit idly by and watch him kill the princes.

He had hoped the curse would be enough to deter him, but deep down he knew that it most likely wouldn’t. Janus was nothing if not persistent, and while Patton may have once found it charming, now all he could feel was disgust. Disgust and horror and… fear. Because what if he was next? Knowing Janus, he was probably just another part of one of his plans. He didn’t care about Patton, he never had, despite whatever he told him.

Patton stumbled over a root, tripping. His hand caught the trunk of a tree, keeping himself upright. He brought his hand up to his head, tears flowing from his eyes as the memories came rushing back and they blended more and more with his vision. He wiped them and looked over his shoulder. Maybe he should go back…

Thoughts of what might happen to him if he did washed over him, and he stumbled back, falling. He pulled his knees up to his chest and gripped his head with both his hands. He couldn’t separate fact from fiction, reality from the memories that consumed him. Fear clawed at his insides, begging to be released despite the fact that Patton had no way to release it.

He tapped out a breathing pattern on his knee, focusing on that instead of the growing dread inside of him. He had to go home, Virgil was probably already worried, and the last thing Patton wanted to do was cause that boy more distress than he had already. But after that whole… conversation with Janus (could it even be considered a conversation? Patton had attacked him and barely gave him a chance to speak), Patton didn’t know if he could face him.

Finally, he knew he couldn’t stay away forever. He wiped the remaining tears from his eyes, and stood back up, feeling like a hollow shell. He couldn’t hide forever, Virgil needed him. He could deal with Janus later. Realizing that in the dark, he couldn’t find his way through the forest, he mumbled a spell under his breath. A path of glowing blue flowers sprouted from the ground, directing him towards the waterfall in which the entrance to his pocket world was hidden. He remembered designing it with Janus, the two of them working to alter the spell and creating the perfect getaway world where they could go together. To escape from reality when it became too depressing. He had moved the entrance when he ran away, somewhere no one had found it, until two weeks ago.

Remembering all this brought a fresh wave of pain, but he pushed on. He wouldn’t allow himself to become distracted like that. The flowers closed up and sank back into the ground behind him as he walked past them, leaving no trace of their existence. If only he could wipe away memories just as easily as he could wipe away the flowers. He sighed, reaching the lake and looking up at the waterfall. There was something oddly eerie about this place at night, perhaps it was the spirits of Virgil’s parents, haunting him.

The cliff which the water cascaded off of was the very one they fell from, after all. And it was Patton’s fault they had fallen. His storm did so much more than just keep Janus from following him. He had seen the aftereffects of it in the village he visited frequently for weeks. Virgil’s parents were only two of who knows how many victims.

The guilt of it all had been almost too much to bear, and many times Patton wondered if it was really worth it just to escape from Janus. Not that he had much choice in the matter, the storm came whether or not he had wanted it to.

Finally reaching the waterfall, he activated the rune by twitching his fingers. The grooves where fingers were supposed to go lit up a soft sky blue, and the rune twisted, glowing a soft blue in the dark before the wall disappeared. He stepped through the entrance and felt it close behind him. Last minute, he twitched his fingers again, locking the rune from outside. He didn’t want Janus following him in on the off chance that he had gone after Patton.

Stepping through the tunnel, he looked up to see the tower lights still on. He sighed, knowing that tomorrow Virgil would be grumpy and sleep deprived. Patton wondered who was at fault here, Virgil for staying up so late, or Patton, who he had most likely been waiting for. He frowned slightly at the thought and opened the door to the staircase at the bottom of the tower.

Climbing up, he could hear soft voices whispering to one another. He could make out the words yet, but he heard laughing, and smiled. Well, at least the princes were keeping his Virge happy. Poking his head out at the top of the staircase, he saw the three of them hanging around, Roman and Virgil on the couch while Remus was sprawled out on the carpet. Virgil was the first to notice him, and Patton felt a small burst of pride. He was always so vigilant, to the point where it was maybe a bit concerning.

“Hey Dad. How did it go?” His son asked. It was an innocent question, but Patton blanked. He didn't want to tell them everything that went on, but didn't know what he would say.

“I hope our dad wasn’t too hard on you.” Roman joked. “He can be a bit… much sometimes.” Patton laughed uneasily.

“The Mayor of Much. But it was fine, I handled it. I told him you were staying here, and that was pretty much it. I left after that.” 

Virgil didn’t look like he quite believed Patton.  “What took you so long then?”

“Oh, I couldn’t find the cottage at first. It took me a while, maybe I should have asked for directions before I left.” He laughed again.

Virgil looked at his dad up and down, noting his rumpled clothing, his red rimmed eyes, and the tear tracks on his face. His laugh, usually so bright and cheerful, sounded hoarse and fake. Something had gone wrong, he knew it.

“Alright, so!” Patton clapped his hands together, smiling. If there was something unnatural, something forced behind it, Virgil didn’t say anything. “We don’t have a guest bedroom, so you are going to just have to stay in Virgil’s room or out here.”

“In… Virgil’s… room…” Roman repeated. Virgil turned and saw that his face was bright red. His own face was heating up at the thought of Roman staying with him. He wasn’t sure why though. 

Remus quickly shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay. We can sleep out here.”

Patton smiled. “Alright, then. I’ll get some extra blankets and pillows for the two of you.” He left the room, climbing up the staircase to the second floor, and the three of them looked at one another.

“Our dad definitely yelled at him.” Roman said. Remus nodded in agreement.

Virgil sighed and looked out the window at the dark landscape. “I should go talk to him.” He stood up, and walked out of the room, tossing one last glance over his shoulder. His father was in his bedroom, pulling blankets down from the closet. Virgil leaned on the doorframe.

“What happened?” he asked. His father flinched slightly at his tone.

“A-ah, Virgil, you scared me!” 

“What happened?” Virgil repeated. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. His father was going to tell him what was wrong whether he liked it or not.

“I told you, I had a hard time finding the cottage. We talked, and then I left, there’s nothing else to the story-”

“But there is, isn’t there?” He took a step into the room. “Dad, I know you. I know what you look and sound like when you’re trying to hide something. Your laugh and smile are forced and have never sounded so fake. Your eyes are red like you’ve been crying, and you sound like you’re on the verge of bursting into tears again. Something is definitely wrong, Dad. Please tell me what it is.” Patton sighed, and smiled tiredly at him.

“It’s really nothing, Virgil, I promise. The forest at night just brought up some… unpleasant memories.” He waved a hand dismissively, and Virgil knew that he was downsizing it. “I’m fine, I swear. It’s nothing that you should really be concerned about. Now, go back down and be with your new boyfriend.” Virgil’s face heated up, and he sputtered. Patton smirked, a bit of his old spirit returning to him.

“Wh- huh- b-boyfriend!? Dad!” Virgil said incredulously. 

Patton burst out laughing. “Oh come on, honey, you know I’m just teasing. But seriously, go and hang out with your new friends, I’ll be down in a minute.” 

Virgil sighed. “Alright. Promise you’ll tell me if something’s actually wrong?” Patton hesitated, and Virgil wondered if he would refuse. 

But then he nodded, and gave Virgil a gentle, reassuring smile. “Promise.” Virgil turned to leave, and right as he reached the door, Patton spoke again. “Hey… you know I love you, right?”

“Yeah, I know. I love you too Dad.” With that, he headed back down the stairs to find that Remus had claimed his spot on the couch. Virgil gasped indignantly and picked up a pillow on the ground, flinging it at Remus, who shrieked and giggled like a little kid. Roman was looking at him and smiling sympathetically.

“So, what happened?” He asked. Virgil shrugged and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets.

“Nothing important. I guess something just triggered a couple of bad memories or some shit like that. He wouldn’t tell me any more than that.” Then again, Virgil hadn’t really pushed that hard, had he? Should he have pressed more? What if something was seriously wrong and he didn’t know because he was too worried about upsetting his dad further to push the topic? He shook these thoughts off. His dad wouldn’t do that, right?

He sat down on the arm of the sofa, looking out at the world. Not for the first time, his eyes drifted to the tunnel that led out of there. What would the real world look like? He hadn’t seen it since he was what, five?

“ _ Blackbird singing in the dead of night _ ” He began singing softly, singing the song that he had heard ever since that first night when Patton found him. It was really subconscious, he didn’t fully realize he was doing it.

“ _ Take these broken wings and learn to fly. _ ” The twins perked up at hearing his voice, watching him with curiosity.

“ _ All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise. _ ”

“You know that song too?” Roman asked. Virgil blinked, looking back at Roman. His gaze was surprised and intense.

Virgil blushed, looking away. “Yeah, Dad used to sing it to me all the time when I was little. Whenever I was having trouble falling asleep, he would always sing that song. It helped calm me down a lot during panic attacks.” 

Remus cracked a grin. “Our dad always hums or sings it really quietly. He thinks we don’t hear it, but we do. We’ve asked him a few times about the song, but he never really answers our questions. At best, he’ll give us a smile and say it’s unimportant. Most of the time, he just scowls and ignores the question. We’ve got a bunch of theories on it, but none of them really make a whole lot of sense.” He laughed. “For all we know, it’s just some stupid lullaby he heard as a kid.”

Patton came back down with the blankets, another smile that was clearly hiding pain on his face. “Hey kiddos! I got the blankets.”

Roman smiled. “Great! Thanks Mr…. Oh, I don’t know your name.” 

Virgil’s father's smile softened a bit and became just a tad more genuine. “Just call me Patton. And it was no problem!” He started laying out all the blankets, and Virgil shook his head. Whatever his dad wasn’t telling him could wait another day. He was tired, and for once he didn’t feel like staying up until three in the morning reading.

“Oh, Anx honey, do you wanna sleep out here with your friends or in your own room?” His father asked. 

Virgil shrugged. “Honestly? Either one sounds good, I end up sleeping out here half the time anyway.” Patton made a concerned noise, and some subconscious part of his mind realized that he just revealed his insomnia to his father, but it didn’t fully register.

“It’s okay Anx." Roman said. "Go sleep in your own bed. You look really worn out. I can't even tell if the bags under your eyes are makeup or real.” Virgil laughed and threw another pillow at the twins. It hit Roman square in the face and he squawked, pulling it off and sending an offended look towards Virgil. Virgil simply smiled and looked down, knowing his face would probably overheat if Roman kept looking at him the way he did.

“Well if you insist.” He said teasingly. “Good night then.” For once he felt like he could actually fall asleep, and he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to do so on his actual bed rather than on the floor. He climbed up the stairs to his room and shut the door behind him. He heard the three others call “goodnights” to him as well, and he sank down against his door. He felt content, happy, like he had never felt before. His life was finally perfect.

Changing into his pajamas, he fell onto the bed, actually taking the effort to get comfortable under the covers. A small memory, very fuzzy and unclear, flashed through his mind, of another person, who was just as kind and loving as Patton but much younger, tucked him into bed and kissed his forehead.

_ “Goodnight my stormy knight.” _ Who was that? His brother? He used to have a brother, right? Were they as close as Roman and Remus appeared to be? What was their relationship like? These thoughts floated around in his mind, but he quickly pushed them aside. He could wonder about the life he never had another time. For now, he closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song that was sung by Virgil is Blackbird by the Beatles.
> 
> Also Surprise!! I'll be honest, you guys got a lot of information from this chapter, and you probably picked up on at least two of the three twists before this.
> 
> The only real thing I'd be genuinely surprised if you saw coming is that the storm that killed Virgil's parents was Patton's fault. There wasn't a whole lot of evidence in the story.


	5. Regrets and Pain go Hand in Hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil learns some new things.
> 
> He doesn't take it well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. Here we go. Sorry for the wait everyone, I was focused on my other stories and there was a lot of other stuff going on so it's been a busy couple of weeks.
> 
> CW: Angst. And lots of it. Mentions of death,

Virgil woke up and knew that something was off. Actually, he had known something was off for a while now. Another week or so had passed since his father had discovered the twins. And his father still wasn’t over whatever happened that night. He tried to hide it from Virgil, but Virgil knew him far too well for that. He saw it in the hidden flashes of pain every time Patton looked at him, barely perceptible but still there. He saw it in the way he carried himself whenever Virgil was around. He couldn’t explain the difference if he wanted to, but it was there. The atmosphere had changed so much that Virgil found himself trying to avoid Patton, something he had never done before.

His father had, several times, reached out to him only to turn away, as if he was afraid of whatever he wanted to say. It was driving Virgil mad. He wanted things to go back to the way they used to be, just the two of them against the world. Sure, Roman and Remus hadn’t been in his life before, but it hadn’t been so bad. He’d barely even noticed the loneliness! Really… he didn’t… Oh who was he kidding.

It just seemed like his father was getting more and more distant, and Virgil hated it. What had triggered this change? What had the twins’ father said to him to make him act like this? Was it really the twins’ father’s fault, or did something else happen that he didn’t tell Virgil about?

He thought about all this while he headed downstairs. To his surprise, the sun was only just beginning to rise. How had he woken up so early? And why? It was so early that even Patton wasn’t awake yet. The twins probably weren’t either. Virgil briefly wondered what it would be like to visit them for a change, but he still didn’t trust the outside world. It was needlessly cruel and overwhelmingly depressing. He didn’t want to deal with that, and honestly, who would?

He looked out the window at the familiar world, thinking about how he had not seen anything else for fifteen years. He was almost twenty now, would Patton kick him out? The obvious answer was no, of course not. Virgil had been with him for almost his entire life and knew that if he didn’t want to, Patton would never make him leave.

But thinking about his weird behavior… could it be a possibility? Was  _ he  _ the reason that Patton was acting so strange? Would…  _ would  _ Patton say that it was time for him to go? Virgil could just picture it.

_ “Kiddo, I think it may be time for you to leave. You’re an adult now, you shouldn’t be living here with me, you should be out on your own, dealing with the real world, just like everyone else.” _ He winced at the last sentence, at the reminder that he wasn’t like everyone else, that he was different, and reminded himself it wasn’t real. Not yet at least. To be honest, this was something that had been worrying him ever since he turned eighteen. Most of the time he was able to ignore it, because Patton had never mentioned anything about it in almost two years. But now…

“Oh, good morning kiddo.” His father’s fake cheerful voice said behind him. Virgil jumped slightly, and Patton laughed. “Oh sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. What are you doing awake so early?” Virgil shrugged and turned away from the window sill.

“I couldn’t tell you if I wanted to. How did you sleep, Dad?” His father’s plastered on smile faltered, and Virgil knew he had had another nightmare. When he was little he would often be woken up by his father’s cries. He would run to his room only to find that he was not in danger, just deep in a nightmare. Virgil would climb into bed and snuggle up with him. It helped. Usually. As the years went on the nightmares dulled, and eventually went away entirely. But the past week, they had come back with a vengeance. Virgil didn’t need to hear his father’s answer to know it was something along the lines of “I’m fine, don’t worry.” He hated hearing it. Hated hearing his father lie to him just to ease his own mind.

“Dad, I know you’re lying.” 

The smile faltered again, but it quickly slipped back into place, albeit a bit wider and more desperate than last time. “I’m serious, I’ll be okay.” Virgil shook his head. He really shouldn’t bring his worries about being kicked out to the forefront right now, his father’s needs were currently more important than his would ever be, but the worry clawed at his insides, begging to be resolved. 

He chewed on his bottom lip, not sure how to start this conversation. “Dad, can I talk to you about something?” 

His father’s fake smile disappeared, replaced by genuine concern. “Yeah, sure bud. Is something wrong?”

“No- well- uh…” He had to swallow his first instinct to instantly reassure his father that everything was fine. He was the one who had brought this up, he was the one who was going to deal with it. “I mean… it’s not anything important, so if you’re not feeling up to it then we can always talk about it later-”

“Virgil, we’ve been living together for fifteen years. That’s enough time for me to read your social cues and figure out that this,” He gestured to Virgil’s body language. “Does not exactly scream ‘unimportant.’ Whatever’s bothering you, you can tell me. I’m very good at listening to others’ problems.”  _ And ignoring your own.  _ Virgil thought. He didn’t say it out loud though. It wouldn’t have done any good.

“Well… I… it’s really kind of stupid…” He drifted off upon seeing his father’s unimpressed stare. He sighed and walked over to the couch, sitting down. “It’s just that… you’ve been acting so weird lately. I don’t know if I can handle how much this is driving me mad. I know something’s off but every time I ask you, you just brush it aside like it’s nothing. And I started thinking… am I the problem?” The surprised look on his father’s face didn’t boost his confidence. But then again, he hadn’t just outright said yes so…

“Honey, why on Earth would you ever think that-”

“It’s just that. I’ve been living with you for a long time. Ever since my parents… died… you’ve been there for me, and you’ve done so much for me. I know I’ll never be able to pay it back to you. Even though you insist I don’t have to, saying that never eases the guilt of knowing that you’re such a great person and I’m…” He trailed off. This was not at all how this was supposed to go. He was only supposed to bring up one insecurity, not all of them!

“And I was just thinking… do you… want me… to leave?” There, he had said it. Now all he had to do was for his father to either tell him yes or no. Feed into his insecurity or shut it down. 

The shock on his father’s face lasted a solid five seconds before it melded into confusion.  “Leave? To go… where?” Virgil hunched his shoulders, clutching his arms and looking down at the ground. Where would he go, should Patton choose to make him leave? He didn’t have many options, though he supposed the twins might be willing to let him stay with them if he asked.

“I don’t know just… leave? Get off your back? Go somewhere else and not have to bother you again?” Of all the things Virgil had expected to see when he looked back at his father again, hurt was not one of them.

“Virgil… honey… why? What gave you the idea that I want you to leave?” Virgil couldn’t meet his gaze. He felt like an idiot, and he had known that he was one, but now it just felt worse. He felt so stupid for saying it, for thinking it.

“It’s just the way you’re acting is so different. Ever since you met the twins, I just thought that maybe… maybe you want me to move out and go live with them or something? I don’t know, I know it’s stupid I just don’t-”

“Virgil.” Patton said calmly. Virgil looked up at him. “I am so sorry, kiddo.” He pulled Virgil into a hug. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I swear I never meant to hurt you. I would never hurt you on purpose. No, I’ll never make you move out if you don’t want to. You can stay here with me forever if that’s what you want. You know that I’ll never leave you, even if you’re mad at me or if I’m mad at you. I’ll always be there for you. Don’t you ever forget it.”

Virgil nodded, feeling something warm and wet rolling down his face. “I-I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to make this about me, or my stupid insecurities. I’m sorry for being so dumb, I know that you’d never leave me but-”

“Stop. Just stop. Don’t apologize. You were worried about something, and you came to talk to me about it. I’m proud of you for doing that. I remember a time when you refused to tell me anything.” Virgil let out a tired, breathy laugh. The sun had almost fully risen now, and light was filling up the room.

“I just… I worry about you, Dad. You  _ have  _ been acting really odd, and I don’t know why. If I can tell you what’s going on, don’t you think you can tell me? You never judged me for any of my fears, you can trust me with yours.” Patton took a deep breath and pulled back, examining Virgil’s face. Virgil did the same. He was also crying, so at least Virgil wasn’t alone in that, but he was also incredibly nervous.

Patton fidgeted with his shirt. “I know kiddo. You’re right, you deserve to know. I just… I don’t exactly know how to tell you the truth. It’s not an easy topic for me and I just… I’ve been putting off telling you for so long now…” Virgil’s curiosity peaked. What was it that his dad could possibly have kept from him? He took another deep breath, and looked away. Whatever this was wasn’t good, he could tell from his father’s face alone.  “You know the cliff we live in, right? The waterfall that hides the entrance to our little world out here?” Virgil nodded slowly. He vaguely remembered it, though he hadn’t personally seen it in quite a long time. “Well… you might have figured this out on your own but… that cliff is the same one your parents fell off of when they died.”

Virgil’s eyes widened. He had figured as much, there weren’t many other cliffs with water at the bottom of it in the area after all. “Yeah, I figured that was the case. I don’t remember a lot of it, just… you know… enough for it to cause the occasional nightmare.” Patton made a sympathetic noise. Virgil decided not to mention that these nightmares were often more than just occasional.

“Well, I knew you could. You were always such a smart kid.” 

Virgil smiled a bit at the praise. But it quickly disappeared when he remembered the task at hand. “Was that all you had to tell me?” His father shook his head, sighing as he looked down at his hands. A few blue sparks danced along them, and Virgil could see the slight blue glow of Patton’s bright blue eyes through his father’s eyelashes.

“Virgil, you know that my magic is highly emotion based.” Virgil nodded, a bit confused “You know that sometimes it can be hard to control. And even when I can control it, it doesn’t always do exactly what I want.” Virgil nodded again, feeling rather mute. He wasn’t sure where this was going, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know where it was going, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop Patton. He was far too curious, and in a bit too deep to turn back.

Virgil bit his lower lip. “Dad, why are you telling me all of this? I know most of this stuff already.”

Patton looked up and smiled softly. “I know you do. I suppose I’m just stalling, trying to deal with everything going on inside of me right now.” He sighed. “Pathetic, really.” 

Virgil shook his head. “If I’m not allowed to talk bad about myself, then you aren’t either.” 

Patton sighed and let out a laugh. “Fair enough, I suppose.” Virgil offered what he hoped was a mimic of one of Patton’s gentle smiles, the ones that always made Virgil feel like things were going to be okay, no matter how depressing the situation was.

“Well, sometimes when I get really emotional, I’m talking, more emotional than normal, my power will flare up in very strong ways. I’ve caused a couple miniature tsunamis, tornados, even a few blizzards here and there.” Virgil didn’t like where this was headed. It wasn’t clear, but whatever his father was trying to tell him… it wasn’t pretty.

“But the most intense of these reactions has to be… thunderstorms. They are always the worst of the bunch, and they are triggered by my most extreme emotions. Extreme anger, sadness, terror, and above all, grief. I don’t know why I was feeling these things, it was all a blur” Well, that wasn’t true at all. He remembered every detail of it clearly, far too clearly, to the point where he wished it was a blur.

And his emotions made no sense. Yeah, anger and terror made sense, and so did sadness, if you looked at it from the perspective of someone who just realized that one of the people they cared about most in the world didn’t care about them in return, but grief? What had he been grieving? The loss of a person who never existed? Was that even possible? It didn’t make sense, but that didn’t make it reality any less.

“Dad?” Patton looked up at his son, seeing him stare at him with wide, concerned eyes. Was he putting the pieces together? Figuring out what he couldn’t say? He knew he was stalling, stretching this moment out as long as possible, because after this, his son was never going to look at him the same way. It was fair, some days, though they had become less common as the years wore on, he could hardly stand to look at himself in the mirror. Knowing that he was responsible for the death of this small child’s parents and for separating said child from his brother. Patton knew that Virgil had a brother out there somewhere, but when he was little he hadn’t been in the best mindset so Patton had never gotten his name. And now that he was older, Patton doubted that he remembered he even had a brother in the first place.

“Sorry hun.” He said. “Anyway, like I was saying. The night I found you I had been going through… something rough. I had just lost someone I really cared about, and then… I don’t know, I was running from something. The storm just… happened.” 

Virgil’s eyes were wide, and Patton knew he had figured it out. “Dad… please tell me you aren’t saying what I think you’re saying.” Patton wanted to. He wanted to back out and pretend that none of this had happened. But he had hidden this from Virgil long enough. He deserved to know the truth.

“I’m saying that… I killed your parents. I caused the storm that killed them.” There was silence for a long moment. Patton didn’t look up to meet Virgil’s eyes, he doubted that he could even if he wanted to. After who knows how long, Patton decided that he couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I’m really sorry, Virge. I… I never wanted to. I wasn’t thinking clearly that night. I know that if I tried hard enough I could have stopped the storm but I just… I didn’t have the strength to do it.” Virgil still didn’t say anything. That was somehow worse than him yelling at him. Tears formed in his eyes, and he wiped them away. He shouldn’t cry. This was something that had happened fifteen years ago, but he wasn’t over it.

He had done worse things in the past, both in self defense and for… him, but seeing the repercussions for it made it that much worse. He could handle killing people if he didn’t think about their families, their lives, their friends. In fact, that had been the only way he could handle it in the past. If he ever thought about it he would get sick. But this was different. This was… this was Virgil, his Virgil, and his Virgil’s parents. Even if he hadn’t done it on purpose, that fact never did anything to lessen the guilt. 

Finally, Virgil spoke. “I- I…” His voice was barely any more than a whisper. “I don’t know what to say to that. I just…” He swallowed, and Patton knew he was internally questioning everything, every moment the two of them had shared, reevaluating them. Patton knew that, because he had done the same. “I’m going back to my room.” He said, sliding off the couch. His movements were mechanical, and Patton watched as he walked the stairs and disappeared through the door, slamming it shut behind him.

Patton flinched at the sound but didn’t say anything. He got up, and wiped the tears from his eyes. He knew his son well enough to know that he probably needed a bit of space, and that he would have to talk to Virgil again later. Grabbing his cloak from the rack, he slipped it around his shoulders and headed down the stairs. He realized he forgot his basket and money upstairs, but that didn’t matter. There wasn’t anything he needed from the market today, he just needed to get out of the house.

He wandered into the tunnel, unlocking the rune with another twitch of his fingers. He glared at his hands as the door back to the physical realm opened. This wasn’t the first time he had wished he had been born without magic, but it was certainly the worst yet. Patton couldn’t think of any good thing that had ever been accomplished with it (even though there were many, many examples), he could only see all the hurt, all the pain he had caused. He swallowed and stepped into the world, feeling the entrance seal back up again. This was going to be a long day.

Virgil sat on his bed, staring blankly at the wall. So much was going through his head right now, he didn’t even know where to start. Patton was the reason for his parents’ deaths?  _ Patton?  _ How was he supposed to feel about this? He thought for all these years that it was just the world who had taken his parents away from him, it was the world that was unjust, but… to know that Patton… the man who had raised him, done everything in his power to make Virgil safe and happy… had killed the people who were supposed to raise him? It was a lot to process.

Not only did he kill his parents, but he killed his shot at a normal life, a life with friends, a life where he wasn’t always afraid to step outside. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice whispered that wasn’t true. The world would still have fallen apart. His parents dying wasn’t the only reason he was afraid of the outside world after all. _But it was definitely a contributing factor,_ another voice argued.

It was an accident, Virgil knew that. There was no way he could have planned it, he hadn’t even known Virgil existed. _And besides_ , the voice of reason continued, _didn’t he say he was going through something rough? He hadn’t been thinking straight, he hadn’t done it on purpose, he hadn’t done this, he hadn’t done that._ They were just starting to sound like excuses. He didn’t like excuses.

The look on Patton’s face, the overwhelming guilt was haunting. He knew that he should probably just forgive Patton. Forgive him so that they could all move on. But he couldn’t. He honestly still couldn’t fully believe what had just happened. He couldn’t just forgive Patton just like that.

Another thought struck Virgil. Patton had killed his parents, meaning it was obviously his fault that he was an orphan. Did Patton feel an obligation to take him in because of that? Was that all it was? Did he ever really care about Virgil at all?

Somewhere, the voice of reason was saying _no you idiot, that doesn’t even make sense. Maybe it started out like that but his love for you obviously extends further than that if he went through all this effort to raise you right_. But Virgil was no longer listening to that voice, the one keeping him afloat. Now he was drowning, coming to more and more conclusions, each one worse than the last.

Patton didn’t love him. Patton only pretended to care because he felt like he had to. Patton was just being nice, Patton this, Patton that. It was all starting to blur together. The conversation they had right before Patton had revealed this secret no longer existed in Virgil’s mind. It was gone, possibly forever.

The voice of reason came back, saying that maybe he should talk to Patton, that maybe he shouldn’t have run off like that. Virgil heard this, he actually listened this time. He got up off the bed, and walked over to the door, opening it. Looking out, he saw the area below was empty. His cloak was missing, no longer on the rack.

_ Of course. Of course he left you. What else did you expect? _ God he was so stupid! He walked back into the room, and slammed the door again. He curled up on his bed, and tried his best not to cry.

_ “Blackbird singing in the dead of night.”  _ He sang weakly, hoping to calm himself down. 

_ “Take these broken wings, and learn to fly.” _ The first tears fell. He kept singing anyway.

_ “All your life. You were only waiting for this moment to arise.”  _

His voice broke, but he kept singing. He had to, he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t, even if he tried. It was oddly depressing, and uplifting at the same time. Each lyric brought to mind another memory

_ Blackbird singing in the dead of night. _

Patton and Virgil, baking together. Virgil was only six, and carrying a flour bag that was almost as big as him. He tripped and spilled the flour, turning their kitchen into a winter wonderland. He thought Patton would be mad, but instead he just laughed and smiled, helping Virgil to his feet and helping him clean up the mess.

_ Take these broken eyes, and learn to see. _

Virgil was eight, he and Patton sat by the pond in their little pocket world. Virgil watched, mesmerized by the calm water and the fish swimming around.

“They’re called koi.” Patton explained, seeing his amazed face. He laughed as he watched Virgil reach down and try to touch one. Patton gently moved his hand away from the pond. “You shouldn’t touch the fish, you’ll scare them away.” Virgil nodded and put his hands back in his lap watching them swim in circles.

_ All your life, _

_ You were only waiting for this moment to be free. _ He sobbed once. Still, he continued on with the song.

_ Blackbird fly, blackbird fly _

_ Into the light of a dark black night _

Virgil was twelve, and he and Patton sat on the roof of the tower, counting stars. Patton waved his hands, causing the stars to form images and perform a story as he audibly narrated it. Virgil slowly fell asleep, safe and content right here, under a thousand stars.

_ Blackbird fly, blackbird fly _

_ Into the light of a dark black night. _

He was fifteen, and his father had brought something for him. Pulling out a new book, he opened it up and was stunned to see all of the pages were handwritten. He looked back up at Patton and realized how much time and effort it must have taken him, but Patton didn’t look bothered. 

“Happy birthday, kiddo. I love you.”

_ Blackbird singing in the dead of night _

_ Take these broken wings and learn to fly _

Virgil was seventeen, and he was waiting for Patton to come home. He wanted to show Patton a painting that he had spent over a week on. He wasn’t the best painter, but when he showed Patton the piece, his father immediately framed and hung it up on the wall. Virgil had never felt more proud of himself.

_ All your life _

_ You were only waiting for this moment to arise _

He was eighteen, and his father once again asked him if he wanted anything special for his birthday. Virgil shook his head, insisting that there was nothing he needed. Still, the next morning he had woken up to pancakes and eggs, and after dinner, Patton presented a cake he stayed up late making. Virgil felt his love for his father swelling up inside him, and he hugged him, tighter than he ever had before. It was only a second before Patton had hugged him back.

_ You were only waiting for this moment to arise _

He was openly sobbing now. The lyrics were hardly recognizable as the song went on, they melted into ugly crying, sobbing, but Virgil couldn’t stop. There were so many things going on in his mind, and they were all scrambled and confused. What was he supposed to feel? All these memories… they didn’t look quite the same knowing that Patton had only done these things out of guilt. Out of obligation. This whole time, and it was all… well… all what? He didn’t know, he didn’t understand. He doubted that he ever would.

_ You were only waiting for this moment to arise. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry.
> 
> Again the song being sung by Virgil is Blackbird by the Beatles


	6. A Prince's Duty is to His People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so you remember last chapter's summary? Take that but replace "Virgil" with "the twins."
> 
> :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, cursing, angst, misunderstandings(?),

Something was wrong with their dad. The twins had come home from sleeping at Anxiety’s place and said hello to their father. He had seemed surprised that they had come back, though utterly relieved. For the next week, he seemed subdued, quiet. He no longer hummed to himself while he cooked, or smiled at them when they came downstairs. He tried to act normal, that much was clear, but he was failing miserably at it.

The twins knew better than to poke at their father when he was like this, but still. What had him so upset? They had hoped that he would get out of it on his own, like he always seemed to before. But it just wasn’t happening. The twins thought back to Anxiety’s dad’s reaction, how he had come back from talking with their dad seeming defeated and lost. And now here was their dad, acting just as unusually.

They had continued to visit Anxiety, of course, and it seemed like his dad wasn’t getting any better either. Something was going on. They had never confronted their dad on anything before, they had always been afraid of making it worse, but now it was getting out of hand. If this continued on much longer, they didn’t want to think about the effects it might have on all of their lives.

“Why do you think he’s been acting so strange?” Remus asked for what felt like the one hundredth time. They were in their room, and Roman was laying down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling while Remus paced around, tossing something in the air and catching it. Roman wasn’t sure what it was, he hadn’t gotten a good look at it before Remus had started, but knowing his brother, it was probably something fragile and most likely expensive.

“I don’t  _ know  _ Remus. I’ve been trying to figure it out.”

“Our birthday is in less than a week. Do you think he’ll cancel the trip to the capital on us?” 

Roman sighed. “Is that really what you’re choosing to focus on? Instead of, I don’t know, our dad’s deteriorating mental health?” 

Remus sighed and looked back at Roman. “Yes. Because it’s too stressful for me to focus on the real issue so I’m choosing to look at the smaller issue instead.” Roman turned his head to look at Remus. His brother did look rather frazzled, more so than usual. His hair, which usually had at least some orderly chaos, was all over the place. He was wearing the same shirt that he had worn for four days straight, which was pretty disgusting, even for him.

“Well, I don’t think he will. You know he’s never once let us down. I don’t think he’d let something like his own mood ruin our plans. But I’m still worried about him. Something’s going on that we don’t know about and I don’t like it one bit.” 

Remus nodded, tossing the object again. “Well, we could always talk to him about it.”

“He’d just shut us down with an ‘I’m fine’ or a ‘it’s none of your concern’ like he has always done before. It would accomplish nothing and we still wouldn’t have an answer.” 

Remus shrugged. “I mean, it’s worth a shot. We just have to be more persistent than we usually are. We never really pushed it before, but this seems like it's pretty important if he’s sulked about it for a week straight.” 

Roman sighed and rolled over so that he was on his side facing Remus. “I guess we could. I just don’t want to say or do something that would make him angry. You know how scary he can get when he gets like this.” Remus nodded. Their father had done his best not to get mad and yell at them as much as possible, but when he was in a bad mood sometimes he couldn’t hold it back. He always apologized afterwards and did something to make it up to them, but in the moment, it was still very frightening.

Especially considering he was a sorcerer. His scales would glisten and his jaw would unhinge when he was angry. It was very unsettling. They were sure that even without the snake features he would still be incredibly intimidating when scary. No one would ever mess with their dad.

“Come on. Let’s go see what’s up with him.” Remus held out a hand. Roman sat up and reluctantly took it. 

“And if he doesn’t give us an answer?” He asked when Remus pulled him off the bed. 

Remus thought about it for a moment and shrugged. “I don’t know, we’ll see when we get there.” It wasn’t a good answer, not by a longshot. But he supposed it was the only answer they had. What else could they do? Their father didn’t have to tell them anything.

“Alright, I guess we could talk to him. We’ve put it off long enough anyway.” 

Remus smirked.“Yeah, uh huh. And you’re still going to stall for time for as long as physically possible before we go down there and talk to him.” Roman’s face flushed with embarrassment, but he didn’t deny it. Remus started to pull his brother towards the door. They might as well get it over with now.

Janus was shuffling through his book collection. He wasn’t looking for a specific book, he was just trying to give his hands something to do. Something to distract him from the desperate, empty feeling inside of him that had been there ever since he saw Patton a week ago. Why did he, even after all this time, still give Janus butterflies in his stomach? Why did he, even when he was furious with Janus, make him want to do nothing more than lean in and kiss him? Why was he such an idiot? Of course he would make the mistake of falling for someone so pure, so perfect, when he himself was just far too corrupted.

It was a mistake that he continued to make. He thought that he was over it, he thought that it was gone, that it was fine, that he had moved on. It only took one look at Patton to realize that he had been wrong. Wrong about so much. Least of which was the way he had gone about parenting the twins.

He remembered when they were just toddlers, barely able to walk on their own. He had kidnapped them. For what purpose, he could hardly remember. Perhaps he wanted to hold them ransom? That seemed a bit too… calm for his old self. More likely was the option that maybe he had planned to kill them. He didn’t want to believe that he used to be the kind of person who would do something like that but… but he wouldn’t put it past himself either. It was probably only when he was on the cusp of killing them he would have realized he couldn’t do it. Luckily, the twins were too young to remember any of that. Janus sighed and gave up rummaging through the shelf.

He was going to have to tell them at some point. Sooner rather than later at this rate. He knew that his unusual behavior hadn’t gone unnoticed by the twins. He was grateful that they hadn’t brought it up yet, but it was only a matter of time. Then he would have to tell them and they would hate him and he would have driven away yet another person he cared about. Or- people, he guessed.

It was his own fault, really. His own mistakes that made them leave him. With Patton he had been callous, not shown him just how much he meant to him. He had made Patton do things that he probably had never forgiven himself for. He was the sweetest, most forgiving person in the world, and Janus had pushed him to the very edge.

He had wanted to bring them back, he remembered that much. After he realized that whatever he had planned on doing, he couldn’t do, he’d wanted to return them to the castle. Maybe move away and start up a new life somewhere else. But then the king and queen were assassinated. No one knows who did it. There were far too many theories about it to sift through the truth and the bullshit. Some thought it was a lord or lady who was unhappy with the regiment and wanted to give themselves more power. Others thought that it was another foreign power that wanted to throw the kingdom into chaos. Well, they had certainly succeeded in that.

It had escalated rather quickly. And at that point, Janus realized there was no way he could let them go back to that free-for-all of a court. They would be in danger. He didn’t know any of the courtiers very well but he was sure that there were one or two out there who were just as cold hearted as him, if not more, who would be more than willing to do what he couldn’t. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

So he had kept them here. He had never told them, Roman was far too impulsive for that and Remus was too much of a wildcard to be relied on to keep his brother in check, and now they were in this position.

And if Patton’s reaction to what he said to him said anything, it was that he was in a very similar position. Janus didn’t know what he had to hide, what he had to lose, but it was clearly something very important to him.

He heard footsteps coming down the stairs and took a deep breath. He had to put on his best show. He didn’t want the boys to worry, though convincing them he was fine may be a pointless endeavor at this point. He used to be so good at hiding his emotions! When had he lost his touch?

He knew the answer, of course. It originated from the same point in his life as all of his problems. Well, maybe all was a bit of an exaggeration, but a good number of his problems stemmed from that night. The night when Patton left him. He turned around and saw Roman and Remus staring at him, looking rather worried. Janus did his best to cover up his emotions and gave them a smile. It didn’t feel convincing even to him. What was he doing wrong here?

“Hello boys. Is something the matter?” He asked. His voice wavered ever so slightly. He knew what this was about. They had noticed his behavior and now they were going to want to talk to him and he was going to have to tell them everything.

“We need to talk.” Roman said, gripping Remus’s hand. 

Janus eyed them and sighed, walking over to the table and sitting down. “I suppose we do.” The twins looked at one another in surprise. Clearly, they hadn’t been expecting him to agree so readily to it. He could read into what that said about him and his relationship with his children later. For now, he had to focus on the difficult conversation ahead of him. Roman and Remus sat down, and for a blissful moment, none of them spoke. Roman placed his hands on the table, palms up, and stared at them. Remus looked everywhere but at Janus, and Janus couldn’t stop chewing his lip. How was he going to explain this to his impulsive sons without causing them to run off and do something stupid?

“Dad.” Roman said, finally. Janus’s head snapped back to his sons, the boys he had raised since they were toddlers, the children he  _ stole  _ from the kingdom only to inadvertently save them from sharing their parents’ fates. “What’s been going on with you lately? You’ve been acting so off lately. Ever since Mr. Patton came to talk to you.” Janus was proud of the fact that he barely reacted to Patton’s name. He didn’t inhale sharply, flinch, make any sound to indicate that the name meant anything to him. He couldn’t stop the recognition flashing through his eyes, recognition that his boys could clearly see.

How long had it been since he had started thinking of them as “his?” They weren’t his, not really, but they didn’t have anyone else, so it sort of made sense. Would he still think of them as his after this conversation? They certainly wouldn’t. 

“I’m sorry boys, I just…” He sighed. This was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done. Harder than when he stole the princes from right under the palace’s nose, harder than having to deal with the fact that Patton had left him. “I think it’s time I told you about what really happened to your parents.” The twins were silent, staring at him with wide eyes.

And so he began. He started the story, leaving Patton out of it. He didn’t want to dive into  _ that  _ mess of emotions that was just a disaster waiting to happen on top of this one. He told them about his plans, how he kidnapped them, how he realized he couldn’t go through with the whole thing, how he had planned to take them back, and how their parents had been assassinated before he could get the chance. The whole time, he avoided eye contact, avoided looking up at them. He didn’t want to see their reactions, but he could feel the shock and betrayal rolling off of them in waves. It  _ hurt.  _ It felt like giant waves beating against him, and just when he got back up, another one struck him, knocking him down again.

When he finished, the tension hovering in the air around them was so thick you could cut it with a knife. He glanced up, just a brief look, but it was enough. Remus’s face was blank, as if he wasn’t sure how to take the news. Janus knew he was trying to process everything he had just heard. Roman on the other hand, looked shocked, betrayed, and angry. Their reactions weren’t anything he hadn’t expected, never say he didn’t know his kids, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. After staying silent for a couple minutes, Roman opened his mouth. At first, he didn’t make any sound, and Janus was almost grateful for it. He didn’t want to hear what was coming, didn’t want to have to sit through another person he loved leaving him, but he supposed there wasn’t much of a choice. Roman and Remus were basically of age now, and he was planning to take them back. He had to make sure they knew.

“You lied to us.” Roman said quietly. It was as if the information was still sinking in, that it still hadn't fully set. “You  _ lied  _ to us.” He said again, louder this time. Janus winced and refrained from telling him that he never lied to them, he just never told them. It wouldn’t help to be a smartass right now.

“I-I can’t believe this!” Roman continued, lifting a hand to his forehead and sounding a bit hysterical. “You- you kidnapped us! Stole us from our real parents! And- and you never even told us! You never even thought to tell us of what we really are. Or- or you didn't _trust_ us. Is that it? You didn't trust us with the information of our own heritage? This whole time, we’ve been talking about the royal family and the princes, and you never said anything!” He took a deep breath, and looked back at Janus with murder in his eyes. “The only father I’ve ever known, and he turns out to be a kidnapper. And a thief! And- and a- a…” He trailed off, the anger draining for a second and leaving nothing but emptiness.

It was a horrible look on Roman, and for a moment, Janus swore he saw the tell-tale glossy sheen of unshed tears in his eyes. But then the anger returned, and curled his lip in a snarl. Remus stayed silent the whole time, but the hurt was clear in his eyes.

“C’mon Remus, let’s go.” Roman grabbed Remus’s arm and pulled him out of the chair. He dragged Remus towards the door, aggressively opening it and pulling Remus out before slamming it behind him. Janus sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was reasonably sure they wouldn’t do anything stupid, but then again, Roman tended to be rather reckless when he was angry.

On the other hand, it would not be a good idea for him to go after the twins right now either. He would not be well received. It was best that he gave them some space. This wasn’t the first time the twins had been angry at him, though it was undoubtedly the worst. He knew how they worked, he knew what they needed, and right now, he wasn’t it. They would be fine for a few hours. Janus sat back and tried to take a few deep breaths. He could feel his eyes getting watery and knew that tears were forming despite his best attempts to hold them back. His vision blurred and he tilted his head back, trying to blink away the tears. It didn’t work. The first few fell, and landed on the floor, leaving tiny droplets of salt on the otherwise clean surface. This was going to be a long day.

“Where are we even going?” Remus asked Roman. They had been wandering around aimlessly for about an hour now. Roman was brooding, and while Remus knew not to provoke Roman while he was brooding, he had to know. Roman stopped, as if he was genuinely thinking about it now. Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. His brother never knew what he was doing. Then again, neither did he, but that was besides the point.

His shoulders slumped in defeat. “I don’t know. Anywhere that isn’t back there.” Remus thought back to the conversation. It had been quite a shock to hear all that, to say the least, but he didn’t really blame his dad for keeping the secret from them. Yeah he shouldn’t have done it, and Remus wasn’t saying he was okay with it, that he agreed with it, but he could at least understand it.

Roman was impulsive, that was a point that no one could argue against. So was Remus, and while Roman tended to air on the side of caution more often than not, he was significantly less cautious when he was angry. And no matter when Janus had told them, Roman would have been angry. He was probably thinking that they would go off and do something stupid, and he probably didn’t want that.

Despite that, Remus was very upset. Anyone who found out that the person who had raised them had actually kidnapped them would be. It wasn’t an unfair reaction. Janus knew that too, he wouldn’t go after them.

“We could go see Anxiety. He always seems to cheer you up.” Remus suggested. Roman seemed to consider it, pausing for just a moment, and then began walking again, faster this time. Remus didn’t have to ask to know that Roman had taken the suggestion, he could see it in his brother’s determined gaze and sure footing. Before it hadn’t been confident at all, he had just been wandering around, trying to figure out what to do next, where to go from here. Now he looked like he had a purpose, he had a reason to be out here.

Remus matched his pace easily, and the two of them walked in silence. It was odd, doing this. Normally they would be racing one another, running through the forest and laughing the whole way. Now it was just… quiet. Remus wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. Probably not. 

Besides the shock of it all, Remus knew that this changed everything. Not just their home lives with Janus, but actually everything. If they were the actual heirs to the throne… oh my god they were supposed to be the ones ruling the kingdom right now. Roman probably had figured it out too, he was a lot smarter than Remus gave him credit for, but he wasn’t sure what his brother would do with the information.

They reached the waterfall, and Remus started walking on the water’s edge towards it, looking down at his reflection, as if looking for something different. Any indicator that they missed, that they were the princes and that they weren’t supposed to be here. He found none. Remus looked the same as always. Messed up hair, pupils dilated slightly more than a normal human’s, grin just a bit too wide and a bit too freaky. Nothing was different, yet everything was. It was amazing what one day could change.

Carefully stepping behind the waterfall so he wouldn’t slip and fall into the water (a mistake he had only made one time  _ Roman _ ), he ran his hand over the stone until he felt the rune. It wasn’t that visible, it was only slightly darker than the rest of the stone, so he always had to make sure to run his hands over the rough surface until he found it. Today, though, it looked even more faded than usual.

Twisting the rune, the wall fell away like it always did, and the twins stepped through to the other side, the wall closing behind them. Immediately, something felt off. The air felt heavier, more sullen. Almost gloomy. They walked through the tunnel and pushed aside the vines.

Remus heard Roman gasp, and he barely held himself back from gasping as well. The sky was cloudy. The weather had never been anything but clear. It also seemed much darker than it normally did, as if the clouds were blocking out all the light from the sun. The twins looked at one another, the message clear.  _ What happened here? _

They carefully kept moving, slowly moving towards the tower. They noticed the vines appeared slightly more overgrown than normal, and hesitated. What if something had happened to Anx? How would Roman react to that, receiving another piece of bad news to add on to an already bad day? Remus didn’t like the answer he came up with. 

“...Anx?” Roman called hesitantly. There was no answer. Roman called again, a bit louder, and there was still nothing. After a few more attempts, all of which failed, Roman was starting to look a bit panicked. 

Remus gripped his brother’s shoulder to ground him before he could spiral down into a panic attack. “Maybe he can’t hear us from up there.” Neither of them believed it, they had never had a problem with getting Anxiety’s attention before. Why was it different now? “Come on, let’s go see if he’s okay.” They reached the door, which the vines had completely overtaken, and pulled it open. It was difficult, but they managed it, and they started walking up the stairs. They creaked under the pressure they were putting on them, and they tried not to read into that. They had creaked before, if not as much, there was no reason to see this as a bad omen. So why did it still feel like one?

They reached the top of the stairs and peaked their heads out. Looking around, they saw the common area was empty. Patton’s cloak wasn’t on the coat rack, so he wasn’t home, but what about Anxiety?

“...Anx? Are you in here?” Roman called. The panic wasn’t gone, but at least he wasn’t in a full on panic attack, so that’s good. It was clear he was nowhere in the commons area, so Remus looked up the stairs. He started climbing them, and Roman whipped around.

“Remus, what are you  _ doing? _ ” He hissed. It was at that point that Remus realized he had never been on the upper floor of the tower. This is where their bedrooms were, it had always felt a little too personal for that. But now, he didn’t really care. He wasn’t in the best mood, or quite in the right mindset, and he was curious.

Remus turned back around and offered a small mischievous smile. “Going to see if Anx is in any of the rooms upstairs, obviously.” Roman rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly before following him up. The upper floor wasn’t all that special, there were only two rooms, one of which was probably Patton’s, based on the light blue walls and fluffy light gray comforter, and the other, which was probably Virgil’s bedroom. Approaching the other door, they could hear muffled sobs coming from it, and they looked at one another in concern. Roman gently reached out a hand and knocked on the door.

“Anx? It’s the twins. Can we come in?” The sobs stopped for a moment, and there was silence for a moment before they heard “yeah.” It was so quiet that they almost missed it, and Roman placed his hand on the doorknob, hesitating for just a second before pushing it open. The sight that greeted them shocked Remus. Anxiety was sitting on the edge of the bed, tear tracks streaming down his face. His eyes were red rimmed, so he had been crying for quite some time, and even Remus could see the even more pronounced than usual bags under his eyes. Remus was usually oblivious to details like that.

“Hey guys…” Virgil attempted a smile but failed miserably. More tears fell, and he quickly wiped them away, sniffing. “I’m sorry, I’m not-”

“Anxiety, Stormcloud, what happened to you!” Roman rushed across the room, until he was right in front of Anxiety. Anxiety flinched slightly at how fast he moved, but Roman either didn’t notice or didn’t bother to react. He knelt down and took his hands. “What happened?” He repeated, his eyes sad and desperate.

Anxiety’s eyes flicked to Remus, who was still staring in shock. This was not at all what he had expected to find when they came here. Anx looked down at his hands and sighed, shaking his head.

“It’s kind of complicated.” He launched into his story, and part of Remus was happy, because he trusted them enough to tell them what was going on, but the other part was incredibly despondent, because of what the story was that he was telling. By the end of it, Roman was staring with wide and pitying eyes. Anxiety turned away and brought his knees up to his chest. 

Remus walked over to the bed and sat on one side of him while Roman stood up and sat on the other side. “Guess we’ve all been having a pretty rough day.” They gave him a brief rundown of what had gone down, and Anxiety’s eyes widened.

“O-oh my god, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought up my problems, you’re clearly going through something worse-”

Roman gripped Anxiety's hands. “Anx. No feelings are stupid feelings, okay? Just because we’re going through something rough doesn’t mean you have to downplay your own feelings for us, okay?” Anxiety nodded. He looked down at his hands, and they were all quiet for a minute. The three of them had never been quiet like this. There was an odd sort of comfort in it, one that wasn’t seen or experienced very often, but it was there nonetheless.

“So. Where are you guys going to go from here?” Anxiety asked. 

Remus looked at Roman, already knowing what he was going to say. He knew his brother better than he probably knew himself. “We’re going to take back what’s ours.” Anxiety pursed his lips, expression unreadable. “You don’t have to come with us, I know it’s a lot to ask of you, especially when you’re still grieving like this, but-”

“I’ll do it.” That shocked Roman into silence, a truly magnificent feat. “I’ll come with you. I don’t want to be left behind. Besides, you all are going to need someone to act as a working brain cell.” His lips quirked upwards, almost in a smile, and Remus saw the ghost of a smile on Roman’s face.

And that is how Virgil, who had stayed in the same tower for his whole life, who had never left it once, stepped outside into the real world, for the first time in fifteen years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is the next chapter going to get any better?
> 
> Um.... well.... I mean.... it won't get any worse?
> 
> Hahaha.... I'm so sorry


	7. The Difference Between Allies and Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton comes home to discover that Virgil is nowhere to be found. So he goes to the only other person he can think of for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Running away, mentions of kidnapping, mentions of death

Patton was exhausted. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. He had spent hours wandering through the streets, trying to find a way to distract himself from the growing emptiness in his stomach. He knew his son needed time, he knew that he would need space, but he honestly wanted nothing more than to go back home and snuggle up with him, apologize a thousand times over and not let go until he felt better. Virgil was an emotional being, he needed to take his own time and go at his own pace. Patton had learned that years ago.

Maybe he shouldn’t have left, that may have given the wrong impression, but he had needed to get out. He found his feelings ironic, because it was such a nice day outside. The sun was shining, and there was a pleasant breeze floating through the air. The market seemed more lively than usual, and there was even sugar in stock for the first time in weeks. It was a shame he left his money at home, he couldn’t buy any. 

It all felt so fake, so… wrong. How could the rest of the world be cheerful when he himself felt so awful? He dimly realized that it was probably very selfish of him, to assume the world would stop for him, but it didn’t stop the thought from surfacing in his mind. Now though, he was done. The sun was getting low in the sky, and he needed to get back home. He normally used a spell to travel faster, as teleportation spells were quite draining when the distance was as far as he needed to go.

He left the market quickly, following the few remaining people who were heading back to their homes and wandering back to the edge of the village. The waterfall that hid his and Virgil’s home was a few days away on foot, but again, magic.

Patton was well aware he was better dressed than most of the other people here. Most of their clothes were fraying on the edges, small chunks were missing, and most didn’t even have a cloak. Patton had always made his own clothes with the help of magic, so it had never been a problem for him. He had passed out pieces he made to some people who especially seemed to need it in the past, but there was always more he could do.

He bumped into a young man, probably only a few years older than Virgil, with brown hair. The young man mumbled an apology before hurrying along. Patton noticed his tattered rags that were far too small for him. He was definitely one of the poorer ones, maybe even homeless. Patton wondered if he had a family, and if he did who took care of them. Maybe if he ever saw the boy again he would have to give him something.

Not that the chances were high that he’d ever see him again. He was one boy in the middle of a crowded capital, and the only feature Patton had even gotten a good look at was his hair. Any number of boys could have brown hair, it wasn’t likely they’d ever see one another again. Reaching the edge of the forest, he cast the spell and sped off.

The woods were impossible to navigate for anyone who hadn’t grown up there their entire lives. The twins had, they knew them like the back of his hand. Patton hadn’t grown up here but had lived here for a couple centuries, it was a pretty safe bet to say that he knew them well. Janus did too, though he expressed far less interest in memorizing them than Patton did. Patton’s lips quirked up at the memory of a slightly younger version of himself trying to map out the woods while Janus sat in the background and rolled his eyes. Patton told him it would be useful, Janus had insisted they had spells for this sort of thing, why couldn’t he just use one of them? Patton had responded by saying it was more fun this way.

He shook off the memory. He didn’t like to think about it, about what he used to have with Janus, the bond they used to share. Once upon a time everything had been perfect, then the evil sorcerer showed his true colors, and everything was thrown into chaos. Such a tragic ending to a once perfect fairytale. Patton sighed and kept running. The trees past in a blur, but he still recognized the terrain all the same. He didn’t stop until he had reached the waterfall.

He opened the rune with his magic, and stepped through. Immediately, he shuddered at the sudden temperature drop. What was going on? Patton walked towards the end of the short tunnel before peaking through the vines and gasping. Pocket worlds were heavily connected to the sorcerer who had created them. They would change as the sorcerer changed, unless he was careful to prevent that.

He had let his emotions affect the state of the realm, of course he had. This was probably not doing anything for Virgil’s mood. He twitched his fingers and the clouds disappeared. The vines shrunk down, so that they weren’t completely covering everything, and the temperature rose several degrees. Satisfied with his work, he headed towards the tower.

Climbing up the stairs, he wondered if Roman and Remus had come to visit. He wondered what kind of scene they had walked into, and how they had dealt with it. The young princes always seemed to lift Virgil’s mood, but could they do so when he was in such a state? Patton’s eyes drifted to the stone walls surrounding him and he sighed. Arriving at the top of the staircase, he looked out at the empty common area. He hadn’t expected Virgil to be waiting out here for him, but it still felt odd. He brushed it off as just his emotions getting the better of him again.

He looked at the staircase leading up to the second floor, and debated trying to talk to Virgil. Patton knew he needed time, but he also knew Virgil would avoid confrontation forever if he let him. Decision made, he took off his cloak and sighed, sliding it back onto the hanger, before going up to the second floor. He stopped at the sight of Virgil’s open door. Virgil never left his door open.

Cautiously, he approached it, wondering what was going on. Peeking inside, he saw the entire room was empty. Immediately, panic flared in his chest. Where was he? Was this a trick? Patton rushed into the room and quickly scoured it. He wasn’t under the bed, hiding in the closet, or even in the bathroom. What was going on?

After it became clear he wasn’t in the bedroom, Patton checked his own room and the closets. He checked downstairs again, and saw nothing. He was sure that Virgil hadn’t been outside, he definitely would have noticed if that were the case, which left one possibility.

Virgil wasn’t here. Patton’s mind immediately flew to where he could be if he wasn’t here. Was he lost in the forest? Had he gone to try and find Patton? Patton bit his lower lip so hard it drew blood. No no, that couldn’t be it. Virgil was a lot of things, but stupid was not one of them. He would know better than to try and go through the woods on his own, not to mention he would probably get too anxious and turn around after a few minutes.

Then it hit him. The twins! They knew the woods almost as well as he did, they wouldn’t have gotten lost. He had probably gone with them to their house. Grabbing his cloak once more, he quickly ran down the steps and back out into the real world, praying to whoever was listening that Janus hadn’t done anything to him. Janus didn’t know about Virgil, at least, he didn’t think so. Even if he did, he didn’t know that Virgil was his kid. But it didn’t stop the worrying. What if Janus found out? What would he do then? The confused feelings from a week earlier came back in full force, perhaps even stronger than before, but he kept pushing himself. He would not allow himself to stop now.

Crashing through the trees, he narrowly avoided getting whacked in the face by a tree branch and stumbled on several roots. He just had to remember the way back. The sun was completely set now, and the tip of the moon was just becoming visible on the horizon.

Finally he reached the familiar house, and stopped just short of the door. If Virgil really was here, would he be happy seeing Patton crashing in? He probably was still mad at Patton, and this wouldn’t make it any better, would it?

On the off chance that Janus hasn’t figured out that he’s Patton’s kid, would he be endangering him by barging in and revealing it? He thought this over for several long minutes before shaking off those thoughts. Janus, for all his faults… he seemed different when Patton had seen him a week ago. More… calm? Was it really so hard to believe that he changed? Part of Patton wanted to believe that he had. Believe that he’s different now, that he is no longer the person he was before.

But the fact of the matter is that he has done horrible things in the past, and there’s nothing stopping him from doing it again.

Well, the least he could do was be polite. He remembered the shocked expression on Janus’s face when he burst in through the door the first time, his lips quirking upward almost in a smile at the memory. It had been fun surprising him like that, but he wouldn’t do it again. He wouldn’t risk it.

Janus was gripping the table so hard it was starting to splinter. The boys hadn’t come back yet. They were really starting to make a habit of this.

Perhaps they were at Patton’s place again? Or maybe they were out with that boy again.  _ Or they’re off doing something stupid. _ A voice whispered in his head. He wasn’t stupid enough to ignore it, it was quite a reasonable possibility that they had gone to try and take back what was theirs. He really hoped that they hadn’t, though.

Someone pounded on his door, and he wondered briefly if it was the twins. He stood up swiftly, practically running and tripping over the rug to open the door. Instead of Roman and Remus, however, he found Patton, panting like he had run all the way here and looking quite disheveled. Janus was shocked. What could warrant Patton looking like this? And why was he here? Janus hoped that whatever the reason, it wouldn’t end up being a follow up to their last conversation.

“Patton? Is something wrong?” He started to reach out a hand, but when he saw Patton tense up he dropped it.

“My son. Where is my son Janus?” 

Janus tilted his head to the side, brow furrowing. Patton had a son? “What do you mean?” 

Patton’s expression grew stormy, though there was a certain panic underneath it that was growing more and more present with every passing second. “Roman and Remus. Where are they?” Janus bit his lower lip, looking out into the darkness behind Patton. He looked back down at Patton and sighed.

“If I knew where they were I would tell you, but I can’t.” He admitted, his fear growing. If they weren’t with Patton… “They haven’t come back since this morning. I am going to assume since you asked, that they aren’t at your place either?” 

Patton shook his head. His face was outright panic now, not a trace of the anger left. “What- but- that- that can’t be right? Where else would he be? Where else could he have gone?” His breathing started to grow heavy, and Janus’s protective instincts for him flared up. Good to know that they were still around after fifteen years.

“Why don’t you come inside? We can discuss things in a more comfortable environment.” He took a step to the side and gestured for Patton to step inside. Patton hesitated, no doubt thinking of all the memories the house held for him, but he eventually did step inside. He sat down at the table, and set his head in the palms of his hands, his elbows on the table. He appeared to be trying to calm himself down, and Janus cautiously approached, sitting down across from Patton.

Janus noticed the way Patton’s shoulders stiffened slightly, and his heart ached, wanting to do something to help. Unfortunately, Janus knew the best thing he could do was keep his distance. They sat in an awkward silence that Janus knew would go on forever if he didn’t speak up. He cleared his throat and Patton looked up at him.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” He said as gently as he could, trying not to let his own anxiety spill into his voice. 

Patton sighed and looked down at the table, scratching it with his finger. “M-my son, Virgil, is missing. I came back home and he wasn’t there. I- I thought he might be here because Roman and Remus have been visiting him.” Janus’s eyes widened and Patton’s brow furrowed. “What, didn’t they tell you?” 

Janus pursed his lips and clasped his hands together. “I was aware that they were visiting a boy in the woods. I was not aware that this boy was your son. And, as I said prior, neither Roman nor Remus have even dropped by here since they left this morning. I am afraid that they are… quite angry with me right now.” 

Patton lowered his gaze and sighed. “So is Virgil.” Janus’s eyes widened infinitesimally. Why would Patton’s own son be mad at him? How could anyone be mad at Patton? Even Janus had never been mad at him. Not even when he cursed him to be a snake and ran away.

“Well, neither of the twins have told me his name.” Janus said. “I don’t think they know what his name is. Has he been using a nickname?”

Patton nodded. “He’s been calling himself Anxiety these days. I imagine that if he were going into a village, he would use that name for himself there as well.” Janus tilted his head, slightly curious about the name choice. He didn’t question it out loud though. It was clear Patton didn’t want to say anymore on the topic. 

After the silence stretched on for a truly uncomfortable amount of time once more, Janus took a deep breath. “I told them about their true heritage.” Patton jerked up, staring at Janus in shock. Whatever Patton had been expecting him to say, it wasn’t that. “That’s why they are mad at me.” Patton nodded silently, as if trying to process the information. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

Janus didn’t blame him. “I think… I think they may have gone to try and take back the throne.” Janus knew that this had always been the most likely option, that he shouldn’t have expected anything else. God he was such an idiot! Hearing himself say it out loud was… rough. It was as if reality was crashing down on him the first time and the weight of the situation was truly setting in.

“But… Why would Virgil go with them?” Patton said, bringing Janus back to the present. “He’s always been on the more cautious side… Oh dear god, it’s my fault isn’t it?” Janus didn’t deny it, because truly, he had no idea whose fault it was. He knew nothing of the situation, and he knew that there was nothing he could say that would make Patton feel better.

“...Why is your son angry with you?” He asked softly. Patton looked up in surprise. He started chewing on his bottom lip in that familiar way that always made Janus’s heart do a cartwheel. Goddamnit, why was it so hard to move on from this man? What was it about him that made his stomach do summersaults every time he saw him, even after everything that had happened between them? 

Patton sighed, and stared up at the ceiling. “I told him what happened to his birth parents.” Janus noticed that he didn’t say “real” parents or “true” parents as Janus might have. He genuinely saw this boy as his, genuinely thought of him as his son. Janus saw it the same way for the boys, but there had always been that… uncrossable barrier. The knowledge that they weren’t really his, and he had stolen them from the people who they were supposed to belong to.

“...And that made him mad at you in particular because…?” Janus pressed. Patton looked down at the table, as if ashamed. “I’m genuinely asking, by the way.” He added, knowing that sometimes his sarcasm made it hard to tell if he was being genuine or not. 

Patton looked out the window. “The storm I conjured when I left you did a lot more than keep you from following me.” Oh.  _ Oh.  _

“Well I hardly think that’s your fault.”  _ If anything it’s mine,  _ he added in his mind, but didn’t bother to say it out loud. 

Patton looked slightly annoyed by him. “Try telling that to an emotionally unstable young adult barely out of his teenage years who hasn’t left the pocket world in fifteen years.”

Janus sucked in a breath. “Yikes.” 

Patton sighed and dropped his gaze back down to his hands. “Even if it isn’t my fault, I still feel like it is. There’s no getting rid of the guilt of knowing someone’s blood is on your hands, whether it was directly or indirectly. Especially if you see the consequences of what you’ve done.” He glanced up to gauge Janus’s reaction to that. Janus felt a small blush rise up. 

“Well I suppose that’s true.” Janus admitted. “You have no idea how many times I could barely stand to look at the twins because of what I did. It doesn’t matter that I inadvertently saved them from being assassinated like their parents, I still kidnapped them and hid their history from them.” Patton blinked in surprise. Janus almost laughed. He didn’t blame Patton for being skeptical, he certainly wouldn’t believe it if he heard it from his own mouth.

Janus sighed. “The boys are probably heading straight for the capital then. We can track them in the morning.” Patton opened his mouth to protest, but Janus held up a hand. “I know, you’re anxious about your son, Patton. If you think I’m not worried about Roman and Remus then you’re dead wrong. But I know my boys are smart enough to take care of themselves for one night. We can’t go out there right now, it’s far too dark. We’ll never make any progress if we’re sleep deprived. We’ll sleep for the night, then head out first thing in the morning. We just have to believe that our kids are smart enough to know how to avoid danger. Trust me, Roman and Remus have grown up in the woods. They’ll be okay.” Patton still didn’t look entirely convinced, but Janus hadn’t expected him to.

He sighed and reached out, taking hold of Patton’s wrist, light enough so that he could easily pull away if he needed to. To Janus’s surprise, he didn’t. He offered what he hoped was a gentle smile and squeezed Patton’s wrist once in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

“They will be alright, Pat. If you can’t trust them to take care of themselves, you can at least trust them to take care of one another. It will be alright.” He said. Patton looked startled at the nickname, and Janus wondered distantly about where it had come from. He hadn’t called Patton “Pat” in a long time, he wasn’t sure that he was allowed to. 

Yet Patton didn’t correct him, and his gaze softened. “Yeah, I know. It’s just that… Virge has always been so afraid of the world. To think that now he’s intentionally going out there and trying to do something like this… it scares me. God knows he’s probably terrified out of his mind. If something were to happen to him… I don’t know what I would do. That kid is everything to me. I… I’ve suffered through the grief of losing someone once before, even if you aren’t really dead. I don’t know how I could go through it again.” It was Janus’s turn to be startled. Patton had mourned him? Patton seemed to realize his mistake, and his gaze hardened a bit.

“Well. I think I’m going to go to bed now. Goodnight, Janus.” He promptly stood up and walked up the stairs. Janus wondered where he planned to sleep, because certainly it wasn’t in their old bedroom. In the twins room then? Janus chuckled at the thought of Patton trying to fit onto one of the twin sized mattress.

He got up and checked outside one more time, just to be safe. You could never be too sure with his boys, and he prayed that they were safe. Despite his reassurances to Patton, Janus knew there was a good chance they could get hurt or worse out there in the world. None of them had any experience with people and it was scary to think of what kinds of trouble they could get themselves into.

There was no guarantee that they would still be in good shape by the time they found them. And what would they do once they found the boys? Roman and Remus certainly wouldn’t be willing to come back with Janus, not with the information they had received. Would Patton’s kid be willing to go back with him? Would he leave them once he had his own son with him?

It didn’t seem likely. Patton was always driven by doing the right thing, and followed his emotions, something that Janus had once seen as odd, but now he was glad. Patton wouldn’t abandon them as soon as he had what he wanted. Not like Janus would have done when the twins first came into his care. He shook off the thoughts. He was different now, he had to be. He couldn’t allow himself to fall back into old patterns. And he wouldn’t. It wasn’t always easy for him, but he managed to stop himself from falling back down the hole, and managed to separate himself from the person he used to be.

It wasn’t always successful, he had backslid once or twice, but there’s nothing that can be done about that. All he could do was keep pushing forward and pray to god that he never became that kind of person again.

Janus turned towards the staircase, hearing Patton’s familiar light footsteps upstairs shuffling around in the twins’ bedroom. After a while it grew quiet, and he knew that Patton had fallen asleep. The poor man was losing his grip on life. Janus walked up the stairs and peeked into the bedroom. Sure enough, Patton was already fast asleep, sprawled out on a bed that was not quite big enough for him.

Janus sighed and entered the room quietly. One night on the couch wouldn’t hurt him, after all. He crossed the room silently and gently scooped Patton up in his arms. He knew that Patton would probably get on his case in the morning for doing this, but at the moment he didn’t care. He staggered towards the door, not quite used to holding something as heavy as a person. He usually used magic for this kind of thing. But for whatever reason, using magic here just seemed… wrong. Impersonal.

Janus left the twins’ bedroom and carefully walked down the hallway to his, nearly losing his balance in the process. He made it though, and carefully set Patton down on the bed. Patton groaned slightly, and Janus wondered if he would wake up. But he stayed asleep, and Janus tucked him in. Leaving the bedroom and shutting the door behind him, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, leaning on the doorway as his mind went through how ridiculous the current situation was.

The true king and queen were dead, and Janus had taken away their sons, saving them from the same fate as their parents without even meaning to. The kingdom was in chaos, and it didn’t seem likely to stop anytime soon. From the little he’s heard about the current “king,” he sounded like a  _ real  _ gem. He had lasted a good deal longer than the others, and that made Janus worry for the twins. He must be a lot stronger than the others to maintain the throne for this long. 

The true heirs to the throne were currently on their way to try and take back what was rightfully theirs, accompanied by Patton’s child who, allegedly, had never left the pocket world he and Patton created for over fifteen years. The twins had no idea how the real world worked either, they hadn’t had any human contact for over fifteen years aside from Janus and each other. And now Patton had come to Janus, and they were going to go out on a hunt for these children before they got themselves seriously injured.

Well, it wasn’t like they were actually children. The twins’ turned eighteen in a week, and it was most likely that Patton’s son was around their age, maybe one or two years older or younger. He just had to believe himself when he said that they would be fine for one night like he had told Patton, and that they would still be alive by the time Patton and Janus got to them. God this was an absolute nightmare.

He headed back down the stairs and blew out the lanterns that were lighting the place up and giving the house its warm comforting glow. He laid down on the couch, not bothered by the cold he felt without a blanket like he probably should be, and sighed. He pulled his hat down over his face, and closed his eyes.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Two new faces are added to our admittedly limited character roster.


	8. The Real World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil has decided he does not like the real world.
> 
> A few familiar faces appear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, poverty, maybe cursing, I'm not sure.

Virgil quickly learned three things about the real world. One, it was just as bad as his father had said it was. They had reached the capital a few days ago, and desperation practically clung to the air. It was so odd, this was nothing like the sunny world of his home. It was so… depressing. The market was the most active part of the town, but other than that, most people didn’t even interact with one another.

The second thing was that it was loud. Like, really loud. It had always been so quiet in the pocket world, and Virgil was quickly being overwhelmed. The people, the birds, the small animals scurrying along everywhere, everything was just so different. The twins also looked like the noise was affecting them, but not nearly as much. After all, in the woods there were the noises of animals and plants and wind. But Virgil had had none of those things. He hated it.

The third was that weather still existed. Of course, he remembered the storm that killed his parents, but that was just a fuzzy memory. In the pocket world, it never rained, it never stormed. Sometimes Patton would make it snow, because they both loved the snow and had so much fun in it. But other than that, it had always been sunny. He hadn’t seen rain or thunder in fifteen years. That’s why he had been a bit confused when he saw the clouds in the sky. He had to constantly remind himself that here, the weather didn’t depend on someone else’s feelings. It was completely up to nature.

As a bonus, they had had to sleep on the ground during the night, which was far from comfortable. Virgil was already beginning to have second thoughts, of course, but he wasn’t so keen on the idea of returning home just yet. After all, he was experiencing things he never thought he would get to experience. Then again, had he decided to go with Patton, he would have still experienced them. And it wasn’t that he had ever had a specific desire to experience them, but he might as well enjoy it while he could.

The colors of the market were really something. They were rather pretty, and the smells, while a bit overwhelming at first, were quite nice. People everywhere were advertising themselves, and small children ran around the square, playing some sort of game with one another, from the sounds of their laughter. They were still living, they were pushing through, even though they had so little. It was heartwarming in a way.

Virgil was still uncomfortable, though, and the twins did their best to ask around about the situation with the power vacuum, but all their responses were either vague, fearful, or some reiteration of “I don’t know, I stopped caring about that a long time ago.”

From what they did manage to gather, the person currently sitting on the throne was an absolute  _ ass.  _ From what they heard, he called himself the “Black King, the rightful heir to the throne.” Yeesh, could his name be any more full of himself? Apparently he taxed them harshly, and didn’t care for anything but himself and his palace.

Roman and Remus always got incredibly defensive whenever they heard someone say the words “true heir.” Virgil supposed it was rational, when considering their position, but he was starting to wonder how they were even going to be able to back their claim to the throne. They had no one but the twins’ “father” to go off of. For all they knew, Roman and Remus weren’t even the real princes!

Virgil didn’t know a lot about the story of the missing princes, seeing as he was still too young to remember anything clearly when they were kidnapped, and shortly afterward he had been taken into Patton’s care. Pat had told him a basic idea of what had gone down, but there hadn’t been many details. He wasn’t sure Patton actually knew all that many details.

“Where do you think we should go next?” Roman asked. He was getting antsy, Virgil could tell. The crowd was getting to even him, who thrived on attention from others. Maybe it was because he had never been in the presence of so many people at once.

“I don’t know.” Virgil replied, gripping the sleeves of his jacket. “I already regret coming out here. I feel like we’re walking right into some sort of trap, even though that’s impossible.”

Roman made a concerned noise. “You know, if you’re that worried about it, you can go back home. We won’t keep you here if you’re uncomfortable.”

Virgil snorted. “If you really think I’m going to leave you here by yourselves, you’ve got another thing coming. Let’s just hope we can make some progress before our fathers find out where we are and go ballistic on us.”

Remus and Roman froze up, and Virgil cursed himself internally. He really shouldn’t have brought their fathers into this. They continued walking through the marketplace in uncomfortable silence, and Virgil chewed his lower lip. He wanted to diffuse the tension in the air, but he wasn’t Patton. He had caused this, and he didn’t know what to say and when, not like Pat did.

He found himself wishing his father was still here. He would know what to do. Still, Virgil had made the choice to leave him behind in favor of helping the princes, and that was what he was going to do. He couldn’t afford to second guess himself right now.

“Hey…” Remus said suddenly, his voice unusually quiet, and Roman and Virgil both turned their heads towards him in surprise. “I… I don’t know if I’m imagining things or just being paranoid, but… I feel like someone is following us.”

Virgil tensed up, his eyes darting around the stalls and glancing behind him, looking for any signs. “What makes you say that?” He said, trying to keep the waver out of his voice.

Remus bit his thumbnail. “I don’t know, it’s just… I feel like there are eyes on us.”

“Where are they coming from, Rem?” Roman asked. Virgil knew that if Roman believed Remus, they were definitely being followed. He tried not to spiral into a panic attack as he felt his breath speed up. It quickly became a losing battle.

“I… I think they’re coming from one of the alleys. Whoever it is has been on us for the past few minutes though, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.” Remus’s voice was uncharacteristically serious. Roman noticed Virgil freaking out and silently slid his hand into Virgil’s, squeezing it reassuringly. Virgil looked up at him in surprise and then gave him a grateful look.

“Just… keep walking, Rem. Maybe they’ll go away.” Roman said, his voice quiet.

“Do you really think that’s going to work?” Virgil hissed. 

Roman pursed his lips. “No, obviously not. But if we take off running now, they’ll know that we know they’re following us, and that might cause them to give chase. We don’t know anything about who they are or what they want, so we don’t know if we’d stand a chance. As long as we play it cool, they can’t do anything without causing a huge uproar.” That… that actually made sense. Virgil swallowed and nodded. He could deal with this.

“Let’s move a little faster, just to be safe. I don’t know how many there are.” Remus said. Roman nodded, and they continued on, moving just a tad bit faster. The tension never left Remus’s shoulders, so Virgil knew that they were still being followed. They didn’t want to leave the more crowded areas, where they could be cornered easily, but at the same time, it would be harder to identify whoever was following them with so many people around.

So they slowly made their way back towards the outskirts. Here, the buildings were even more run down, and most “houses” were barely more than one room shacks, not much bigger than the garden shack the twins apparently had at their home.

As the crowd thinned out, Virgil began looking around, looking at the people surrounding them and trying to determine if any of them looked like they were following them. He couldn’t tell, but he also didn’t know exactly what a person who was following them would act like, so it was kind of pointless.

“There.” Roman said quietly, his head jerking towards an alley. “I saw someone hide in there.”

“We don’t know for sure they’re the one who’s following us, though.” Virgil said quietly. “I mean- what if they’re just… I don’t know, hiding from someone else?”

Roman shook his head. “No it’s definitely them. I caught a glimpse of them in the marketplace, and then ever since then, every so often I would see them again. Now they’re here, and they’re hiding from us… I think it’s fair to say that they’re the one who's been following us.” He started wandering over towards the alley.

Virgil’s anxiety kicked into full gear, and he grabbed Roman’s sleeve. “What are you doing?” He hissed. “We don’t know what they want! They could be trying to kill us!”

Roman gently brought his hand up and removed Virgil’s from his sleeve. “It’s still three against one, and I really don’t think that’s the case. They don’t seem to be… very strong. I don’t know for sure, seeing as I haven’t actually seen more than a few glimpses of them at a time, but I don’t think that they’re trying to hurt us. Besides, we have Remus, I think we’ll be fine.”

That got Virgil to laugh a little bit. He relaxed ever so slightly, but he was still tense as he followed Roman and Remus towards the alley.

They reached it, and looking in, Virgil almost gasped aloud. There was definitely someone there, Roman hadn’t been mistaken, but whatever Virgil thought their pursuer would look like, it certainly wasn’t this. It was a boy, perhaps a year or two older than Virgil, and incredibly skinny.

He was malnourished and his ragged clothes hung off of his frame, baggy despite the fact that they most definitely should not be. On his face sat wire frame glasses, with one of the lenses cracked. His hair was black and his eyes were gray, almost lifeless. He… he looked even worse than Virgil on a bad day, to be honest.

The other tensed upon seeing them all, stepping back and looking for all the world like he was going to bolt, even though there was nowhere to go. He had backed himself into a corner. Virgil took a step forward, and the boy (could he really be considered a boy since he was certainly older than all of them?) flinched.

“Uh… hi.”  _ Great job Virgil, what an opener. _ The boy looked at them suspiciously, eyeing them up and down in an analytical way that made Virgil almost feel self conscious. Which was ridiculous, considering that  _ he _ wasn’t the one who decided to follow some random people out into the outskirts of town.

“...Greetings.” The boy said. Why so formal? Whatever, Virgil wasn’t in any place to judge. He himself was sorely lacking in social skills, after all.

“Uh… yeah, hi, man, mind telling us why you were following us?” Roman said, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. Now Virgil didn’t know a lot about socializing, but he was pretty sure that  _ that _ was being a bit blunt.

The other boy didn’t answer, just looked at him suspiciously. Remus whacked him lightly on the shoulder and stepped in front of his twin, who scowled at him.

“Okay uh… that wasn’t the greatest opener, sorry about that, my brother can be a little harsh. I’m Remus, this is Roman, and our friend Anxiety.” Remus looked over at him, and Virgil offered a little wave.

The boy tilted his head to the side. “...Logan.” He said simply, relaxing ever so slightly. He had given up his name so easily. It seemed rather stupid to Virgil that people handed out their names to strangers all the time. You never knew what someone would do with that information, yet most people just trusted that no one was going to do anything bad with it.

“So… Logan…” Roman cut back in, and oh boy, he was tense again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I noticed you back in the marketplace, but Remus here felt like someone was following us. I’ve noticed you a few times since then, and now you’re all the way out here. Is there any particular reason for that?” Welp. There was an attempt.

Logan cleared his throat and tucked his hands behind his back. “Not many new people come to town, and you are certainly new. I was curious.” He didn’t elaborate. Geez, talking to this guy was even harder than talking to Virgil, and that was saying something.

“You can really tell who’s new and who isn’t?” Virgil spoke up, surprising himself. “That seems like a lot of people to memorize.” Logan shrugged but didn’t say anything. Virgil had to resist the urge to scream in frustration.

“Alright, yeah, fine, we’re new.” Roman said, shrugging. Virgil whipped around to look at him with eyes wide. “What? He already knows anyway.” Roman turned back to Logan. “We don’t actually know all that much about what’s going on. We kind of grew up away from the chaos. We’ve just heard that it’s bad here and wanted to get a good idea of how bad it was.” Well… Virgil supposed that was true in a way.

Logan pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. “You mean to tell me you came here without any sort of protection whatsoever,  _ by yourselves, _ simply because you were curious? If you want my opinion, you should just go back to your lives away from here. Wherever you live must be a lot better than here if you have no clue what’s going on.” That… that was the longest he’d gone on talking, and it was to lecture them to go home.

“Well, we’re not you, and we didn’t ask for your opinion.” Roman said, and immediately winced at how harsh that came out. Logan stared at him with a mildly offended expression. “Okay, that one’s on me. But what we’re saying is that we’re here to see if we can make the situation any better. We aren’t going to leave without trying first.” Logan scoffed.

“No offense, but I doubt there is much you could do to help this place.” He said, and wow he sounded awfully haughty for someone who was  _ literally wearing rags for clothing. _ “Short of the king and queen or one of the twin princes rising from the dead, no one is going to be able to fix this. It’s hopeless, and if you want to preserve what little you have left, I suggest turning around and going home now.”

The twins looked at one another, and Virgil bit the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing at the expressions on their faces.

“Actually…”

An hour and a very long explanation later, the twins, Virgil, and Logan were all sitting down in the alley, Logan with a very dumbstruck expression on his face.

“So you mean to tell me…” Logan said, looking between the three of them. “That you two” He gestured to the twins “Are the twin princes, and you have been absent for the past fifteen years because you were kidnapped by a sorcerer who raised you as his own, and you only learned of your heritage this morning?” He said, a skeptical look on his face.

“We… don't really understand it either.” Remus admitted. “We’re still figuring it out as we go. We don’t even know if he’s telling the truth, but there is a lot going on, and we think that… if he is telling the truth, maybe we could make things better?”

Logan shook his head. “Clearly you aren’t from here. Even if I didn’t know it right away from your unfamiliar faces, I would know it because of everything else about you. The fact that your clothes are dirty but for the most part look like they’re brand new and don’t have any holes in them. Your blatant optimism that blocks out reality, it’s so obvious, I’m surprised no one else has followed you around here.”

“That was a possibility!?” Virgil shrieked, tensing up. Logan looked at him like he was crazy, and Virgil realized just how in over their heads they were. 

Logan quickly shushed him. “Possible as it may be, it seems you were fortunate enough not to run into that problem. And if you had, you most likely lost them in the crowd. It was not easy, keeping up with you while remaining…” He glanced back over at the twins. “Mostly undetected.”

Virgil let out a breath. “Yeah, I know. Sorry, I’m just being paranoid right now.”

Logan shook his head. “Your response was perfectly reasonable. I get the impression you do not get out much, and not growing up here would certainly change the way you perceive these things. Although one would think that growing up away from danger would cause them to be more brave, instead of timid.” There was definitely a question in his voice.

Virgil tensed up and scowled. “Just because I grew up away from the chaos of the kingdom does not mean I am immune to the cruelty of the world. It took my parents from me, after all.” He said, narrowing his eyes. He didn’t know why he told Logan that, when he had just met him, but there was something about it that just felt right. And really, that wasn’t a valid excuse anymore, seeing as it wasn’t the world, it was  _ Patton _ who took his parents away.  _ On accident _ , a small voice whispered. He ignored it.

Logan’s gaze softened. “I see. I understand, it took mine as well. And if your story is to be believed,” He turned his gaze once more to the twins. “It also took away theirs.” Roman and Remus nodded, hard looks in their eyes. Part of Virgil felt bad for implying that he had no parents. Patton had been a father to him for most of his life. But he pushed it away, remembering he had only done it out of pity and guilt.

“So you’re an orphan. That explains your appearance.” Roman said, tilting his head to the side. Logan tensed, and Virgil had to resist the urge to facepalm. His social skills weren’t just as bad as Virgil’s, they were worse!

“So anyway, do you know anyone who’d be willing to help us?” Remus said, glaring at his brother.

Logan shrugged. “I know everyone in the capital. I know that one of the king and queen’s old friends, Lord Picani, still lives here, and tries to do everything he can to help the people. He knew your parents better than anyone. He’d be your best bet.” 

Remus nodded. “Could you take us to his house? We… don’t exactly know our way around this place.”

Logan nodded, and stood up, turning to face the open street. He paused. “Why would you want me, of all people, to help you? Why not someone with power? I’m no one.”

Virgil shrugged. “Hey, I’m no one important either, but they still wanted me to come along. I don’t really know if we can trust anyone with power right now, they might try to use it to get rid of the twins once and for all. You said that this Lord Picani likes to help the people, so hopefully he’ll be sympathetic towards us, but it’s nice to have someone who we know isn’t going to try to use our status against us. You’d have nothing to gain by turning on us and everything to gain by helping us. Besides, I think the twins have claimed you as their friend now. You’re stuck with us, whether you like it or not.”

“That was… surprisingly thorough for someone who doesn’t know anything about politics.” Logan said. Virgil shrugged, and then watched as the rest of what Virgil said registered in Logan’s head. “Wait, friends? I did not consent to this!” He screeched, but didn’t protest anymore. Virgil recognized the hopeful glimmer in his eye as well. The hope that he had finally found a friend in someone. The twins and Virgil stood up as well, and Logan led them back out into the street.

Virgil couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes on them, but Remus didn’t seem to sense anyone, and Logan seemed perfectly relaxed. He did, however, spot one person looking disdainfully at Logan, whispering something to the person next to them, and that didn’t sit well with Virgil. Not because he thought they might try something, but because they seemed to be… gossiping about him. And it didn’t look like it was too kind either.

Logan seemed to either not notice or not care, though, so Virgil decided not to bring it up. They walked back towards the more crowded part of town, and subconsciously Virgil drew in closer to Roman. Roman glanced at him and without a second thought reached down and gently grabbed Virgil’s hand, squeezing it gently once more.

Finally, they reached a house that was a bit bigger and nicer looking than the others, but not by much. Roman and Virgil looked at one another. Was this where Lord Picani lived? They expected something… bigger.

Logan turned around and noticed their confusion. “Lord Picani spends most of his time and money helping others. He has no need for a big or fancy house, this suits him perfectly well. I’ve… I’ve actually visited him a few times, he seems to like me, I think.” The way he said it made it clear that he didn’t understand why Lord Picani liked him.

Logan walked up to the door and knocked on it twice. It was a sharp, precise knock. Everything about him seemed kind of precise for someone who probably never had a formal education. He stepped back and gestured for the others to come closer. They did, and waited a few tense moments for the door to open.

Finally, it swung open, and standing in the doorway was an older man, probably in his forties or fifties. His hair was a soft light brown, though it was starting to gray in some areas, and he had a soft face shape with green eyes and freckles. Something about him reminded Virgil of Patton, which was like a knife to the gut. It wasn’t appearance, exactly, but more body language. The way his face lit up when he saw them standing there. The soft edges and gentleness that radiated from him. It reminded Virgil so much of that first night when Patton found him in the woods.

“Logan!” The man said, his smile wide and bright. “It’s a pleasure to see you again. What brings you here?”

Logan cleared his throat awkwardly, and stepped aside. “Good afternoon, Lord Picani, My friends require your assistance.” Virgil saw the moment when Lord Picani saw the twins. His smile dropped, his eyes widened as he looked them over, recognition flickering through his features. His gaze was searching and thorough, and though he wasn’t paying particular attention to Virgil, he still felt the need to hide behind Roman a little more.

“It… it can’t be…” He whispered, so quiet Virgil could hardly hear it. His face was full of shock and disbelief. As well as… hope? There was definitely hope in those eyes. “I thought you two were dead!” He said, louder. Oh, so he knew who the twins were then.

“You… you recognize us?” Roman said, a little confused.

Lord Picani nodded fervently. “Roman, Remus…” He reached out a hand towards them, as if to touch one of them, but then seemed to think better of it and retracted it. “You two look so very much like your parents.” He said warmly. “Please, come inside. You must tell me everything.” He quickly ushered them all into his home. It was warmly lit but not very furnished. It was definitely cozy, with small personal belongings scattered on shelves or other such things. Nothing like what Virgil would have thought a lord’s house to look like.

Lord Picani led the four of them to a room with a table seated with six chairs. They all took a seat and Lord Picani left to go start some tea. Logan followed after him to help him carry the cups. For a few minutes, the three remaining people sat in uncomfortable silence, wondering how they got into this situation. When Lord Picani and Logan came back, they were holding a couple of cups and a hot teapot.

After a few moments where Picani poured the tea, he sat down and clasped his hands together, resting his elbows on the table. “Now, tell me what happened, and where you two have been all your life.”

The twins took turns explaining the situation, but Virgil noticed that even now they left out the specifics of the sorcerer who kidnapped them. They left out where their cottage had been, what the name of the sorcerer was, what he looked like. It was very vague, but Virgil made no comment. He himself didn’t know what their “father” looked like, he had never met the man.

Lord Picani nodded along throughout their entire explanation, and when he was done he laid back in his chair. “Well, that is certainly quite the tale.” he said, sighing. “So you really didn’t know who you were until a few days ago?” The twins nodded. “Well it’s a good thing you came back at all, then. I’m surprised the sorcerer told you of your heritage. One would have thought that he’d want to keep it a secret from you for as long as possible.”

The twins shared an uneasy glance. “We… we don’t exactly understand it either. A few weeks ago we met Anxiety here, who was also raised by a sorcerer, though his story is different from ours.” Virgil nodded along, not sure what to say.

Emile frowned in concern. “Were you also kidnapped by him?”

“ _ No! _ ” Everyone stared at him, with shocked expressions on their faces. Virgil himself was surprised, he had no idea where that had come from. “I-I mean…” He took a deep breath. “I wasn’t kidnapped… though the sorcerer did have a role in my parents’ deaths, he… he took my in and raised me. He was always really kind to me and… and he was just as much of a father as my real father had most likely been…” He fell silent, staring at his hands. Everyone at the table sat in awkward silence for a few minutes.

Finally, Logan spoke up. “You seem to see a great resemblance between the two of them and the old king and queen. If they are legitimate, then you should assist them in trying to take back the throne.”

Lord Picani nodded. “Of course. When you parents died,” He turned back to the twins. “A lot of people thought that I should take the throne. They thought that because of how close I was to the king and queen, it was a logical solution. But I declined, because I never wanted that responsibility. I didn’t think I was ready. Now, I thoroughly regret the decision. This kingdom has fallen into ruin because I allowed a power vacuum to form.” He turned back to the twins, a gentle smile on his face. “I will assist you in what ways I can. When you take the throne, I will back you. I will make sure no one questions you.”

Not if, when. He was already so sure that they were going to reclaim their birthright. Anxiety began to creep in, and Virgil wondered if they were going to be able to pull this off. They were just kids! Well, technically he was still nineteen and the twins turned eighteen in a few days, but still. He shook off the thought. They would figure it out. It would be okay.

Roman nodded. “Thank you Lord Picani. Your help means everything.”

Lord Picani just nodded and smiled warmly. “Please, call me Emile.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest, I have no idea where I'm going to take this story next. No no, I'm not abandoning this or putting it on hiatus, and I have the plot written down and I know where it's going, but I don't know how long it'll be before the next update. Please stay patient with me, I promise I am working on this story even if updates are slow, and I promise to do my best to get the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading, your support means a lot to me <3


	9. Not Quite Forgiveness, and Definitely Not Forgetfulness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catching up on the dads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: I can't really think of any right now? But if you notice something in the chapter feel free to comment about it :)

To say that traveling with Patton was awkward would be something of an understatement. They weren’t on good terms by any means, there was still that wariness he carried, though the general hostility had gone down a bit. If they were being honest, though, that wasn’t the real reason why it was so awkward. No, it was because Janus still had scales on half of his face, and carried several snake-like traits. All of which were the result of the curse that  _ Patton _ had placed on Janus. 

Janus understood why he did it. God knows that he had more than deserved it back then. But still, he was different now, and he could tell that Patton had some… conflicting feelings about the curse. Oh, and also Janus was still totally in love with the man who literally  _ turned him into a snake. _ So yeah, things were kind of tense.

They hadn’t actually left the morning after Patton had crashed through the door, demanding to know what Janus had done with his son. It had taken them a few days to come up with a plan and gather enough supplies for the trip. There hadn’t been much to worry about in terms of food for the two of them, and they did have to be careful to pack enough clothing, but searching through their combined collection of spellbooks to try and find the specific right spell to help them track their kids was certainly not easy, and incredibly mind numbing. Not only because Janus had a shelf full of them, but the two of them had created an entire  _ library _ of spell books within Janus’s pocket study.

Not to mention, all of the volumes were sizable, so yeah, it took awhile to figure it out. Janus also packed extra outfits for the twins and a couple for Patton’s son, because they had left without supplies of any kind, and were probably very dirty by now.

When they did finally leave, Patton had cast a tracking spell to find them, and when it didn’t pick up immediately, it worried them. That meant one of two things. Either their life force was weaker than it had been when they left, making it harder to pick up on, or they had gotten further than Janus had anticipated, forcing the spell to expand its range. He desperately hoped it was the second one.

They moved quickly through the forest, trying to keep up with the trail. Every so often, the spell would wear off, and they would search the area, trying to find the boys, unsure if it was just the spell deactivating or if they were somewhere nearby. The trail led them all over the place. Clearly, they didn’t know which way it was to the capital, even if the twins knew the entire forest like the back of their hands. But by the end of their first day, they hadn’t found them. That was concerning. Did they stop to rest at all?

In a weird way, though, Janus was kind of glad they hadn’t yet reached the end of the trail. The fact that it was so long was a sign that they hadn’t been killed yet. As long as the trail continued, they were probably still alive. Janus didn’t want to know what would happen if they reached the end and all they found were the dead bodies of the children they raised.

Patton, however, did not seem to share his sentiment. He didn’t like not knowing what was happening with his kid at all. Several times, he would work himself into a panic attack thinking about all the different ways things could go wrong. Janus often tried to help, but he really did nothing in the end. All he could do was sit nearby when it happened and wait it out.

Patton always joked after each episode by saying that he sounded like Virgil, trying to calm himself down enough to continue searching. It worked sometimes, but most of the time the joke just landed poorly, and made him sad thinking about his son again.

Janus was trying to keep himself from freaking out as well, because they had waited a few days, and their kids had gotten further than he could have ever imagined. They could well be in the capital by now! Or even at the castle! The thought alone nearly gave him a heart attack.

“Do you think…” Patton said, coming up beside him. “That they’ve been found out?”

Janus hesitated, but shook his head. “Roman and Remus are smarter than that. They’d be careful, and I’ve warned them about how the capital is many times.” In truth he didn’t know. If someone decided to follow them because they were curious or suspicious… it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out who the twins were.

“I know… I’ve told Virgil about the capital enough that he knows the situation by now. Maybe I went a little too far, seeing as he was always too scared to leave the pocket world with me. I can’t imagine what the twins said to him to convince him to come with them but…” Patton swallowed, and Janus swore his eyes were getting a little misty. “You know.” He completed, turning away.

Janus laid a hesitant hand on his shoulder awkwardly, half convinced Patton would snap at him for it. But he didn’t, and Janus considered that a win. It seemed that Patton was too tired to lecture Janus about touching him.

“Anger makes people irrational.” Janus said softly. “I think both of us learned that the hard way.”

Patton scowled “Are you saying what I did was unjustified?” He asked, turning back to face him and squaring his shoulders, lifting his chin.

Janus shook his head vigorously. “What you did to me was completely justified. I was referring to my own behavior.” Patton relaxed a bit. “And the storm. It was a good solution for you at the time, but very destructive. I don’t blame you for it though, your magic is heavily connected to your emotions.” Patton’s shoulders lowered at the mention of the storm. Janus had always seen Patton’s strong moral compass as something of a weakness, his emotions a force that was holding him back from reaching his true potential.

It wasn’t a weakness. And it had taken Patton leaving for Janus to realize that. Janus looked up at the sky, realizing that the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. It would be dark soon, and so concluded a fruitless day of searching for their sons.

_ Patton’s son and the princes. _ Janus corrected himself in his head, gritting his teeth.  _ They aren’t yours. You stole them. _ The reminder made his fists clench. Maybe they weren’t his, but they were the closest thing Janus had had to family for the past fifteen years. If they got hurt, he would never forgive himself. 

“We should set up camp for the night.” Patton commented, echoing Janus’s thoughts. “We’ll just have to keep searching for them tomorrow.” Exhaustion leaked into Pat’s tone, exposing the aching weariness they both had from searching for the kids with no luck.

Janus didn’t say anything, just nodded in agreement as Patton slid his bag off of his shoulder. After having a quick dinner, Janus walked over to an empty spot, kicking away a few stones and twigs. He closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath, exhaling as he felt his magic flow through his veins and summon a shelter for the night. It was small, barely bigger than the average tent, but insulated and comfortable, much better than sleeping on the ground.

He stepped inside and flopped on his back on the mattress, trying not to let his emotions get the best of him. He brought his hands up to his face and pressed his palms against his eyes, trying to hold back the tears even as he felt his eyes grow watery and wet his hands.

Everything that was going on, all of it, he just- he couldn’t handle it. How was he supposed to? His dreams were haunted by the scared expression of Patton on the night he left, the angry expressions of the twins before they left, and the faces of two children, too young to understand what was truly going on but knowing that they weren’t where they were supposed to be all the same. 

Why did he ruin everything? He tried to keep people close but ended up pushing them away thanks to his own actions. He tried to keep Patton in the dark about his plans in an attempt to protect him from the truth until he was sure of his victory, but Pat had violently rejected him when he found out and fled. He kept the twins’ true parentage from them, hoping that they wouldn’t find out before they were ready and that it would keep them from doing something monumentally stupid, and now they were off on what was guaranteed to be a suicide mission.

Oh god, he really hadn’t changed, had he? He made the same mistake twice, and now he had no chances of repairing any of the relationships in his life. He tried so hard, and yet he was still acting like his old self. His excuses weren’t even that good! He wasn’t protecting them, he was just setting himself up for heartbreak and failure. 

He sat up, trying to shake off those thoughts. Sitting here, wallowing in self hatred wasn’t going to do anyone any good. He stood up and stepped back outside. Fresh air would hopefully clear his mind. To his surprise, Patton hadn’t gone to bed yet. Well, it was still fairly early, he supposed, but Patton always liked going to bed early. The sun was just set, still barely visible, and the moon was just beginning to appear over the horizon.

Patton was laying on his back, and Janus watched him curiously as the sun fully went down and stars began to appear in the sky. That’s when he realized what Patton was doing. He was stargazing. Janus took a step forward and immediately hesitated. Would Patton welcome his company, when there was so much between them?

His decision was made for him when Patton turned his head and looked directly at him. Welp. Patton motioned for him to come closer, and he did, tense and unsure of what he wanted. When he reached him, Patton sat up and patted the ground next to him. Janus sat down, one knee drawn up to his chest and the other stretched out in front of him, and his arm resting on his knee.

Patton tipped his head back and set his hands on the ground behind him, stabilizing himself. “The stars are so beautiful, aren’t they?” His voice was the softest Janus had heard it since they had run into one another again, and his expression looked strangely vulnerable. It made Janus wonder what was going on inside of his head.

“Y-yeah.” Janus replied eloquently. He drew his lips into a thin line, not wanting to say anything else that would embarrass himself more.

Luckily, it seemed that Pat had a lot he wanted to say. “Virgil and I used to do this a lot, you know? Stargazing. We’d climb onto the roof of the tower and I’d manipulate the stars to make constellations. We’d come up with stories for them, and sometimes we’d make one he liked so much he wanted to hear again. So I would tell him again, and then again, and sometimes again, until he was asleep. Or other times, I would tell him multiple different stories. How long it took him to fall asleep was never the same, and I never knew if it would take fifteen minutes or two hours.” Patton frowned. “I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to make more memories like that.”

“Well why not?” Janus asked, tilting his head to the side. “You’ve told me about what’s going on between the two of you, I know, but that’s not the kind of thing that lasts forever. What you did was unintentional, and you’ve done so much for him. You love him, and whether or not he’s angry at him, he loves you.”

Patton shook his head. “I wish it were that simple. But Virgil has a problem with self loathing. Now that he knows what happened to his parents, he probably thinks I did everything for him out of pity or guilt. He’s always had a hard time grasping the idea that love doesn’t come at a price. That he doesn’t need to repay me for anything I’ve done. Now he probably thinks I’ve been doing everything just to make up for my mistake. Maybe guilt did play a part in my decision to raise him. But like you said, I love him. He’s my son, and really, how could I not? He’s a good kid. You remember how I always wanted children, don’t you?” He laughed.

Janus did remember. Patton had talked about it for years, saying they could adopt or find some way to have them biologically. He hadn’t wanted them, didn’t see the point in them, not to mention they would probably outlive them, but the idea of one day having a child to raise had made Patton so happy he had entertained it.

_ Guess he got his wish, huh? _

“Patton I’m…” Janus started. Patton lowered his gaze and looked him in the eye, a question hidden in his frosty blue irises. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I ever truly said that, so I’m saying it now. I’m sorry. For everything. For the situation with the princes, for not telling you about my plans sooner, and not listening to you when you tried to get me to stop.” He paused. “I was a really horrible person back then, I know that. You were the only thing in my life that I truly cared about, and I drove you away. You left me and I was… I was so  _ angry. _ It took me awhile to step back and realize that  _ I _ was the problem.”

Patton’s small smile fell, and he turned his head away. “I… appreciate the apology Janus but…” He hesitated, and Janus forced down the lump in his throat. “I don’t think I’m ready to accept it. You said it yourself, there’s a lot you did wrong, and you… you  _ hurt _ me. You were a good partner, you were always so gentle and kind and sweet, I’ll give you that. But what you did… I can’t forgive you just yet. You’ve changed a lot, I’m not so dense that I can’t see that. But there’s still a lot you have to make up for.”

Janus pushed back the wave of disappointment. He hadn’t apologized for himself, he had done it because he was genuinely sorry. It was unfair to Patton to expect him to accept his apology just like that, especially when he was entirely right. There’s a lot he still needed to fix. 

“I understand, Pat. It’s okay.” He looked up at the clusters of stars and smiled to himself. “Why don’t you tell me about the constellations and stories you and your son came up with?”

Patton’s face lit up, and he immediately started ranting about the stories he and Virgil would make up. There were comedies, tragedies, adventures, quests, and relationships, both platonic and romantic, of every kind. Eventually, he moved on from just talking about constellations and started talking more about his memories with Virgil. Each one was tinged with melancholy, but he kept telling them anyway. Watching him babble on and on, the adoring look on his face, Janus remembered what it was that drew him to Patton in the first place.

_ They had met when they were still teenagers. Janus had come across him feeding ducks at a pond in the middle of the forest. Janus watched him curiously from the trees, unsure of whether or not he wanted the mysterious boy to see him just yet. He was singing to himself, Janus noted. He had a very lovely voice. A duck walked up and quacked loudly at him, seeming to demand more breadcrumbs and interrupting the boy’s song. _

_ Instead of shooing him away like Janus would have, the boy had simply laughed and reached into his bag, drawing out a handful of more crumbs and holding them out, letting the duck eat them from his hand. This action mystified Janus. Why let wild animals get so close to him? Why would he let them eat out of the palm of his hand? Wasn’t he worried that they would bite him? _

_ He stepped closer attempting to get a better look at him, and his foot landed on a twig, snapping it in half. Janus froze. The boy whipped around, and their gazes met for a split second. His eyes were an unnaturally bright blue, similar to how Janus’s were an unnatural golden. Was he a sorcerer too? His eyes were very beautiful, even if they weren’t the eyes of a sorcerer. _

_ The boy stepped towards him, and snapped Janus out of his trance-like state. He turned around and fled. _

_ “Wait!” The boy called after him, but Janus didn’t listen. He should have been more careful! Part of him wanted to go back, the boy had entranced Janus so badly he wondered if he had maybe cast a spell. Used that voice of his, perhaps? ...Could sorcerers do that? He wasn’t entirely sure of what they could and could not do yet. Either way, he wasn’t going to risk it. Even if the boy seemed nice, you couldn’t always trust first impressions. He kept running.  _

_ The next time he had seen Patton, it had been in the marketplace. The kingdom had been a lot smaller back then, still relatively new, and the market was small compared to what it was now. Janus had heard shouting and cautiously went over to see what the commotion was, wondering if he could cause a bit of trouble to exacerbate the issue. Chaos was his favorite weapon. But when he got there, he saw it was that same boy from the pond, the one who had been feeding the ducks. It seemed that he was getting chewed out by a merchant for simply stealing an apple from a stand. Even from where Janus was standing, he could see that the boy was unhealthily skinny. He was clearly poor, and probably just looking for something to eat. Really, was one apple to feed a starving boy really something to get so worked up over? Honestly, people could be such idiots sometimes. _

_ “I’m sorry sir, it won’t happen again.” The boy promised when the merchant finished yelling. Janus scoffed. Really, all of that, and all he had to say about it was an apology? _

_ “Yeah, well, sorry doesn’t do anything about the damage to my merchandise” The merchant huffed. What damage? HE LITERALLY TOOK ONE APPLE! Janus noticed that said apple was now on the ground, bruised and somewhat smashed. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to call the guard.” The man continued. Oh  _ hell  _ no. The boy looked frightened, but he didn’t say anything, just lowered his head and nodded. Janus decided that he had had enough of this. _

_ “Excuse me!” He had called, walking towards the two of them. Recognition sparked in the boy’s eyes, but to Janus’s relief, he didn’t say anything. “Do you have an issue with my friend here?” _

_ The man looked him up and down, and Janus kept his face carefully neutral, so as not to show any of his underlying anger. “This young criminal was stealing from my stand.” He huffed. Janus had to resist the urge to scoff or snap. Criminal, really? That was rich. Especially considering that if anyone was a criminal, it was Janus. _

_ Janus looked between him and the boy, an idea slowly forming in his head. He could probably talk his way out of this no problem, and he could also take a little petty revenge. “Oh? And what did he steal?” He asked, batting his eyelashes innocently. _

_ “An apple.” The merchant said without hesitation. Wow, his reaction to the situation sounded extremely pathetic now, didn’t it? A few other people glanced over at them, and a few whispered, some casting sympathetic glances at the boy and whispering about the merchant. Good, this wouldn’t be good for his sales at all. _

_ “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Janus purred, offering a charming and only slightly unsettling smile. “My friend isn’t from around here. He doesn’t know any better. I’d be happy to… reimburse you. How much does an apple typically cost?” The merchant named his price, which was probably way more than it should be, and Janus dug out his purse, dropping a few coins into the man’s waiting hand. Of course, the coins were totally fake. He had no way to get real money, but thanks to magic, no one could tell the difference. They might as well have been real. _

_ The merchant grumbled as he counted the coins, almost as if he had been looking for an excuse to cause a scene, which realistically, he probably had been, but he did let them go. They started to walk away, though Janus reached out and grabbed another apple, tucking it into the folds of his cloak when the merchant and the boy weren't looking. _

_ He led the boy through the town, who looked a mixture of confused and relieved, through the streets, and then when they were far enough away from the market that they were probably in the clear, he pulled him into an alley. _

_ “Thank you.” The boy said, slumping down in relief and rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t showed up. It’s too bad though, I dropped the apple and it’s probably been completely smashed or eaten by a horse by now. So I still don’t have any lunch, and I broke the law for nothing.” He laughed bitterly. _

_ “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Janus said, pulling the apple from out of his cloak. The boy gasped when he saw it. _

_ “Did- did you steal that?” He said, his voice and expression aghast. Janus nodded, a smug smile on his face. He held out the apple to the boy, who looked at it before hesitantly taking it. “But- this- I just-” He took a deep breath. “Why though? You already had the coins to pay for one apple, couldn’t you pay for another?” _

_ “Because it’s fun to fool idiots like him.” Janus said, laughing a bit. “And he deserved it. Seriously, kicking up all that fuss over one apple!?” Disgust leaked into his voice as he looked out into the crowd. _

_ “Well… I did steal from him.” The boy said, chewing on his bottom lip.  _

_ “He was going to turn you into the guard!” Janus exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air in exasperation. “For trying to find something to eat when you clearly have nothing! And it wasn’t even that big of a deal! I doubt he’s going to realize I took another apple from him, and he certainly wouldn’t have noticed you taking one if you hadn’t been caught. You might have even been able to run away even if he had caught you, but I’m guessing you froze?” The sheepish look on the boy’s face answered the question for him. “So really, why shouldn’t we be allowed to take revenge against him?” _

_ “But… stealing things is wrong.” The argument was weak, and even the boy seemed to realize it. He sighed and offered Janus a bright smile. “Well… thank you, anyway. I’m Patton!” _

_ Janus smiled. “Janus” He replied, nodding his head. This boy was sunshine incarnate. Janus decided right then and there that he would protect him with his life. _

Janus didn’t remember falling asleep outside, but there was a blanket covering him and a pillow under his head, which he assumed was Patton’s doing. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have rained during the night, so he was still dry. 

Patton had already taken down his shelter, and was packing up the rest of their supplies. He sat up, groaning as he felt the stiffness in his joints. Patton turned to look at him and offered him a quick smile, picking something up from on top of his bag and bringing it to him. It was an assortment of berries that Janus was definitely sure they hadn’t packed. Pat must have gone foraging. He was always so good with wildlife. 

That brought to mind the question of exactly how late he had slept. The sun was well into the sky, and Janus figured the lost hours of sleep from the past few nights were catching up to him. He ate the berries quickly before standing up, stretching, and walking back into his little shelter and changing. He hadn’t even slept in it, which kind of defeated the whole purpose of having it. Welp.

He brought his hand up and ran it through his hair, noticing that it was a little too greasy for his tastes. He muttered a spell to clean it, and then suddenly it was just as silky as it was normally. Okay- maybe he was a little too dependent on magic. But really, what was he supposed to do? He was too tired to do everything by himself, and he frankly didn’t see the appeal of doing everything manually when you could just snap your fingers and boom, it was done. Not like Patton did.

The only exception he could think of for this rule was housekeeping. Ironically, the one thing Patton never wanted to do manually. He found some of the repetitive movements soothing, and it helped him sort out his thoughts when things were getting too overwhelming. And of course, the twins were responsible for their own stuff, he had to teach them some form of responsibility, after all.

After leaving the shelter and collapsing it, he picked up his bag and swung it over his shoulder, offering a smooth smile to Patton. He didn’t show any of the emotions that he had felt last night, and Patton seemed happy to not talk about it as well.

Janus cast the tracking spell this time, and it picked up on their trail sooner than it had previously. They were getting closer. The idea made him happier and more stressed at the same time. They set off without further ado, following the path, which seemed much more sure than the previous time when they had cast it. It was strengthening too, meaning that it wasn’t fading in and out, and they didn’t have to recast it. They both sped through the trees, careful not to lose one another in the process, though they weren’t entirely successful in this venture. They had to slow down a couple of times because they got separated.

Finally, they reached the capital. The path they were tracking went right into the heart of it. Janus’s stomach sank. Crowds weren’t really his thing, and the more crowded the area, the better cover their kids had, but the more likely they were to be spotted. Not to mention, the way the tracking spell worked was that it picked up on everyone’s trail, but singled out the person or people they wanted, and made those more visible. In the forest, it was just the three trails to follow. Here in the overcrowded capital, all those paths intertwining would make it harder to keep their trails straight. He could feel panic rising, but he did his best to tamp it down. This was fine, they could do this.

The two of them followed the trail into the city. The first place it headed was the market, which they spent more time in than they originally planned. Patton had insisted that they didn’t rush too much, and maybe look around a bit, as two strange men in cloaks wandering around the market without buying anything or even looking at any of the stalls would look a little bit suspicious. Eventually, though, they left the market and headed into the more deteriorated part of the city. 

Patton was looking around, his eyes wide and pained, while Janus kept his head down and tried not to squirm uncomfortably too much. This place was awful. But there was nothing they could do about that right now. They stopped in front of an alleyway, where another trail led into, and then left with them. They looked at one another, wondering what this meant, who this was, and what they were doing with the twins. Patton hoped that whoever they were, they were friendly.

They followed the three, now four trails to the “nicer” part of the city, where the trails went into one of the bigger houses. This was probably a lord’s house, that or a previously rich merchant who had saved enough money to buy a nicer house.

Janus and Patton debated going inside, but decided against it, as they were two strangers who the owner of the house knew nothing about. The trails left the house anyway, so there really was no need to risk it.

As they headed closer to the center of the capital, Janus’s heart sank. He had a pretty good idea of where they were headed by now. He looked at Patton, who seemed to realize exactly what he was thinking. These trails were heading straight for the castle.

Patton’s eyes met his, and then they took off running.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here we go! Action time >:D


	10. Panic! At The Everywhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAAND HERE WE GO! The final chapter before the two endings >:)
> 
> Buckle up folks, this one gets intense
> 
> CW: Swearing, blood, injury, dueling, death(?)
> 
> A lot happens in this chapter, and I can't reassure you that everyone makes it out in one piece

This was bad. This was very very  _ very  _ bad. Oh, this was a disaster, he knew they shouldn’t have done this! They should have had at least a few more days to prepare, maybe do more than to teach Roman and Remus cursory sword skills. They hadn’t prepared nearly enough for this! Okay yeah, the twins were naturals and had bested the teacher Emile had found for them several times, but they were still only eighteen, and still amateurs!

Virgil shouldn’t have come along. He should have stayed at home and convinced the twins to do the same. If he had, they wouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place! Or at the very least, he would still be at home, with his dad, trying to get things back to the way they used to be, even if, logically speaking, that was impossible.

They were surrounded. They had backed themselves into a corner when they burst through the doors to the throne room, and now they were standing with their backs to the wall, surrounded by guards who were armed to the teeth.

When discussing options for how to sneak into the castle, Logan had suggested that they go the stealth route, while Roman and Remus just wanted to storm their way into the castle. Virgil had agreed with Logan, they were only four people, even if Emile was going to do his best to raise support among the civilians to potentially help them along. Chaos was erupting in the streets. A few minutes ago, an explosion went off at one of the guard stations, and now people were rebelling against the guards, taking over their posts, and arming themselves. Emile really was popular. But the castle? That had been all them.

At the end of the debate, Logan had won out, and they had decided stealth was the safest option for them. They had gotten further than they would have if they had just brute forced it, but something had gone wrong. Someone had spotted them, they weren’t sure where, but someone did. Because when they reached the throne room, it was empty. The king should have been there, Emile had told them there was a meeting that would have taken place when they attacked. They would have been oblivious to the chaos outside unless a guard informed them, the throne room had no windows.

But no one was there, and instead there were just a bunch of guards waiting to ambush them. Virgil should have really thought this through more, maybe it was foolish of him to want to be a part of this doomed journey. He wasn’t like the others. Whereas Roman and Remus were great at hand to hand combat and close range weapons, and Logan was great with a bow and incredibly accurate, Virgil wasn’t particularly talented at fighting. He was pretty tricky with a dagger, but that didn’t do much good when most of your enemies had swords.

He was more or less dead weight. Yet he had insisted that he wasn’t going to let the three of them go alone, and now look where he was. This is what happens when he tries to be loyal to the people he met only a few weeks ago. 

The king was still nowhere to be found, he hadn’t crawled out of whatever hole he’s hiding in when the guards had surrounded them, though if he did he’d probably be dead. Logan was out of arrows, but he knew how to get creative with his weapon of choice. 

Roman hadn’t lowered his sword, and Remus was still swinging his morningstar from side to side, looking rather menacing for a kid surrounded by armed men in full suits of armor.

The leader of the ring of guards around them said something, and Roman snarked back, but Virgil wasn’t listening. He could feel the panic settling in as he realized that they were all about to  _ die. _

Now more than ever, Virgil longed for Patton. He longed for his gentle embraces and kind words, longed to hear his voice as he promised that everything was going to be okay. He thought back to the night Patton had found him. He could have just left him out there in the cold. Not talked to him. It would have taken a whole lot of guilt off his conscience. Maybe his brother would have found him if he stayed out there. Maybe he would have died.

But instead Patton had chosen to let him in, let him stay with him, and raised him as his own son. Promised to take care of him until his parents came for him, and then comforted him when they never did. 

That night had taken on a new meaning since Patton had revealed the truth about what happened to his real parents. It reframed every second the two of them had spent together, and made him question whether or not it was real at all. Whether or not it was genuine affection or guilt. But that was stupid. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had always known that guilt wasn’t the reason Patton had chosen to take care of him. Guilt would have made him do the bare minimum. Guilt would have made it so he could barely look at Virgil. Guilt would have made him send Virgil on his way the second he was eighteen, no longer obligated to take care of him.

Patton loved him. Well and truly loved him. He did everything for him, made every decision with him in mind. Why had he ever questioned that? How could he have ever thought that the man who had raised him, who was a  _ father  _ to him, didn’t care about him? He was always there when Virgil needed him. Every single time he needed help, his father was there. Every time but now. Because he had pushed him away, and now he would never see him again.

When they all died, would his father find out what happened to him? Would there be a big public announcement that the two princes, along with two nameless young adults with no past and no future, had been killed? How much guilt would Patton feel, how much would he grieve? How long would he blame himself? Beat himself up over his death?

“I’m so sorry Dad.” He whispered, feeling like the room was getting smaller and smaller. Remus heard him and gave him an odd, indecipherable look. Roman was still arguing with the leader of the guards, and Virgil almost wished they would finish so the guards would just kill them already, because dragging this out was agonizing. They knew how this was going to end, and prolonging the inevitable never did anyone any good.

_ “Blackbird singing in the dead of night.”  _ His voice was raspy, thick with unshed tears and a little out of tune, but he was singing too quietly for anyone to really hear him anyway.  _ “Take these broken wings, and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive.” _ Even now, the song was comforting. It gave him a warm feeling that reminded him of home, and he felt the ghost of a smile flicker on his face.

Memories were flooding through his brain, making it impossible to focus on the current situation, or the fact that everything around him was going a bit blurry. All he could see and hear was Patton, tucking him into bed, holding him while he cried, singing softly to him. All he could feel was the warmth that radiated off of him, and he could practically smell the scent of cinnamon and sugar that never seemed to leave him. 

Distantly, he could hear the argument getting more and more intense, but he didn’t care. If he was going to die here, he wanted to do it while remembering good things. Not thinking about all the wrong decisions he had made to get here, or all of his regrets.

He smiled slightly, even with tears still coming on strong, and put his hand on Roman’s. Roman stopped talking and looked at him in surprise.

“Anx?” Roman whispered uncertainly.

“Thank you Roman. You did your best.”

~~~~~~

Remus had been watching his idiot brother argue with someone who clearly outmatched him in both terms of raw strength and power, and skill. Anxiety had already given up, which was made clear by the fact that he didn’t look scared or angry and ready to fight. He looked empty. Calm in a way that was actually a little unsettling, especially coming from him.

He was thinking about his dad. Patton, the wonderfully kind sorcerer who raised him, and welcomed both Remus and Roman with open arms. Seeing his expression like that was like an arrow straight through his heart. Okay sure, he had gotten attached to the emo, sue him. But not only that, thinking about Anxiety’s dad made him think of his own “father.” The two of them knew one another somehow, and Remus wondered once more how they were connected.

It didn’t matter much, though, did it? Because they were all going to die here and he was never going to get to see Janus again. They had called him “Dad” their entire lives, and knowing what he had done didn’t make him any less of a father figure, even if it… complicated their feelings about him. 

Because he had, even if it had been on accident, saved them from the same fate as their parents. He wasn’t always the best at parenting, but he had tried his hardest to raise them right, and allowed them a chance at a life where they didn’t have to worry about anything.

He had taught them responsibility, done his best to communicate the complex concept of morality, showed them the world was not black and white like it was in story books, and prepared them to rule without them even knowing it. Knowing what kind of person he was in the past forced them to look at everything in a different perspective, but in the end, Remus missed Janus. 

He missed the protection he offered, missed the long nights when Remus couldn’t fall asleep due to nightmares he couldn’t remember where Janus would read him stories until he had calmed down, missed snuggling up by the fire as a snowstorm raged outside while he sipped hot chocolate and listened to his father's soft singing. Those were the times when Janus truly showed that he cared about them. He loved them, even if they weren’t really his. Even though there must have been a barrier between him and them, one only he could see. He did everything he could for them.

Remus could see on his brother’s face that he was thinking something similar, or just wishing for Janus at the very least. Even if they ever made it out alive, they would never be able to fully repair their relationship, but right now Remus didn’t really care. He just wanted to see the father who raised him again.

“That’s enough!” The guard roared, raising his sword so it was at Roman’s throat. Even then, Roman didn’t lower his sword, and Remus had yet to let go of his morningstar. From the moment he had laid his hands on the handle, he knew it was perfect. He wasn’t going to put it down, and if they wanted him to let go of it, they’d have to pry it from his dead body. 

“How dare you come here and pretend to be the twin princes! The two of them died years ago, disappearing without a trace!” The guard snarled.

“If they disappeared without a trace, then how do you know that they died, huh?” Roman shot back, more angry than Remus had ever seen him. They often joked that Remus was the feral one, but right now, with the pure rage so clearly engulfing Roman, he wondered if that was really true. Roman looked ready to rip the guard’s throat clear out, and honestly? Remus wasn’t opposed to it.

“You are pretenders! You know nothing of the politics of this world, and the current king has done a wonderful job ruling! You have no right to take his god-given throne away from him!”

Roman snorted. “Is that what he told you? ‘God-given throne?’ Please, that’s the stupidest bullshit I’ve ever heard! If he’s such a great ruler, then tell me, why is the kingdom starving? Why are civilians harassed by some guards and ignored by others? Why are hundreds of people dying every single day because they couldn’t find enough to eat? It’s a miracle this place hasn’t been taken over by an outside kingdom by now. They certainly would have done a better job than this guy!”

“How dare you insult His Majesty! You’ll be executed for this!”

“As if you didn’t plan to kill us, a bunch of kids, right here and now!” Roman snapped. Remus refrained from pointing out that technically, none of them were kids. As of a few days ago, all of them were legally adults. Pointing that out would solve nothing but annoy his brother and give the guard more incentive.

The guard opened his mouth to retort, but suddenly Anxiety was at Roman’s side, placing his hand on top of Roman’s. Remus could see his brother’s brain short-circuit, even now. He was still completely smitten, even when they were all about to die. 

“Thank you Roman.” He said quietly. Remus had to lean in a little to hear what he was saying, his voice was so low. It was like he barely even realized he was saying these things himself. “You did your best.”

“Anxiety, what?” Roman said. “You can’t be giving up now! We’re so close! We just have to take care of this dickhead.” He shot the guard a fierce glare. “And then we’ve done it.”

“Roman…” Anxiety said with pleading eyes. The guards around them were looking on, a bit confused and a bit wary, almost like they expected a trick. “You can’t possibly expect us to take on all of them, can you? We’re surrounded, severely outnumbered, and tired beyond belief. There’s no way we’d be able to win.”

“Finally.” The guard said, a sick grin on his face. “This one understands.” He moved his sword so it was pointing directly at Anx. Roman’s face was turning red, and Remus had a feeling that if that guard didn’t lower his sword quickly, he was going to end up dead, no matter what the consequences of that would be.

Anxiety, on the other hand, turned a bit paler at the sight of the cold steel pointed directly at his soft, unprotected throat. Remus stiffened, and so did Logan out of the corner of his eye. Logan had become weirdly protective of Anx, in a way that was similar to Roman but also completely different. Not in any way that Remus could pin down but… still different.

“Step away from him.” Logan growled, and Remus felt a shiver of fear run down his spine. Logan was scary when angry, even when said anger wasn’t directed at him.

“Or, what?” The guard taunted, taking a step closer instead. Logan snarled and reached back for an arrow from his quiver, only to find that it was empty. Ah, that’s right. The nerd had run out awhile ago and had resorted to strangling people with the bow string. The guard simply laughed at his attempt to scare him.

Again, Remus wished for the terrifying power that his father held, the one that could turn people to ash with the snap of his fingers. Well, that was probably an exaggeration. Janus had said before he wasn’t the strongest sorcerer out there, even if he wasn’t weak by any standards. He had told them all about his magical abilities, and Remus wished desperately that he were here right now to show them off.

“I’ve had enough of this.” The guard lowered his sword and stepped back, smirking because he knew he had already won. Like this was something he took joy in. “Finish them.”

Remus tightened his grip on his morningstar, preparing for one last fight and trying to stave off the sense of hopelessness that threatened to consume him. The guards began advancing, and Roman took a step forward to face them.

Before anyone could make a move, though, the doors to the throne room flew open, and two more figures stepped in.

~~~~~~~

Virgil blinked. He blinked again. He closed his eyes tightly and rubbed them, but when he opened it, nothing had changed. Except that couldn’t be right, because there was no way. There was no way this was possible.

Standing in the doorway was  _ Patton, _ eyes blazing with fury and glowing brighter than Virgil had ever seen them glow, and a ball of bright blue energy in each hand. Beside him was another man, whose face was half covered in golden-green scales. He also appeared to be a sorcerer, but his magic was golden, and much smoother, though no less angry. Where Patton burned hot, this new man looked colder than ice.

“Dad?” He didn’t realize he’d said anything until everyone’s gaze snapped to him. Everyone except for Roman and Remus, who were looking at the new man with wounded expressions. The level of raw emotion on their faces was more than Virgil had ever seen, and it almost scared him. He’d never seen the twins look so vulnerable. 

Patton’s anger only intensified once he saw the guards surrounding them. He took a step forward and all the guards simultaneously flinched back. The head guard’s eyes flickered down to the swirling balls of energy, most likely packed with every ounce of every emotion Patton had felt in the past few days.

“You’re a-” They started, but didn’t get to finish before one of the energy balls slammed into their chest, sending them flying across the room. The guard hit the wall hard, and crumpled to the floor, dead. After that the room descended into chaos. The guards were without leadership, and therefore unorganized, completely unprepared for the new arrivals.

Patton and the other man made short work of the others. The two of them were ruthless, sparing no one in their efforts, though not all of them ended up dead, only unconscious. It was a matter of minutes until all of the guards were on the floor, and Virgil, the twins, and Logan found themselves surrounded by bodies.

Patton looked around at the destruction, his face something akin to regret mixed with lingering anger, until he laid his eyes on Virgil, and all of that melted away into pure relief. He rushed forward and then Virgil was in his arms, locked in a tight embrace that Virgil had never been more grateful for. He saw his vision go blurry as tears ran down his face, and he buried his face into Patton’s shoulder.

“D-dad.” He sobbed, wrapping his arms around his father and squeezing him tightly. In that moment, he never wanted to let go. He wanted to stay here, forever, never moving. A few minutes ago he thought he was going to die, and now here his father was, holding him.

“Virgil.” Patton whispered in his ear. “I am so,  _ so _ sorry.” He sounded like he was close to tears himself. “Virgil, my son. My pride and joy, the light of my life. I am never going to let you go. Oh baby, I’m so sorry.”

“Wh-what are you apologizing for, Dad?” Virgil asked wetly. “I’m the one who ran off. I should be the one apologizing. I-I hurt you. I ran away and I scared you and you must have been searching for me for days now and I’m so sorry, I’ll never run away again, I’ll never leave your side again. I- I-” He was cut off by another sob.

“Shhhh no, no baby, it’s okay.” Patton said, smiling even through his tears and wiping some of Virgil’s own off his face with his thumb. “I never should have kept that secret from you. I just felt so guilty and I couldn’t bear to see you look at me with anger. It was selfish, but I just couldn’t bring myself to-” He cut himself off, sucking in a breath, and let out a shaky sigh. “It’s over now, sweetheart. Do you want to go home now?”

Under normal circumstances, Virgil’s first reaction would be to nod vigorously, but he hesitated, and looked at the others. The twins were hugging the other man, and having their own grossly affectionate reunion. He guessed he was their father? Logan was standing off to the side, watching them and looking mildly confused and a tad uncomfortable.

Staring at them, he realized… he… couldn’t leave, could he? He had gone through so much with these people, it seemed wrong to just go back to the life he had been living before. If… if they had truly won, then the twins were going to take the throne. They wouldn’t be going back to the cottage in the woods with the man who raised them. If he left now, chances are, he’d never see them again.

“...No.” He said, turning back to Patton. “No, I want to stay. I want to stay here with them, and help them fix everything. I… I can’t just leave them. Not when… not when I’ve come so far with them.”

Patton nodded. “I understand sweetheart. You can change your mind whenever you want, and I’ll always be there to support you. And… I guess I’ll have to introduce you to Janus.” 

Virgil nodded, stopped, and frowned. “The twins' dad? Isn’t… isn’t he the reason you were so upset earlier?”

“It’s… complicated. I’ll have to explain the details of everything later.” He said, a bit sheepish. Virgil nodded and didn’t question it. He was just glad to have his father back. Patton pulled back, though he kept one hand on Virgil’s shoulder, and straightened up, leading him over to the others. Roman and Remus were now animatedly talking with their father, asking questions rapidfire and barely giving the man a chance to answer.

They slowed to a stop once they saw Patton approaching them, and Roman smiled. “Hey Pat. Anx.” Virgil frowned, remembering that Roman and Remus still didn’t know his real name. They had been through so much, and yet he still hadn’t trusted them with that information. That didn’t sit right with him.

“Virgil.” He said quietly, so quietly he was afraid they didn’t hear him speak at all. His stomach squirmed nervously, but he quieted it. It would be fine, he could trust them. He just stormed a palace with them, for heaven's sake!”

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Roman asked, looking slightly confused but also still very happy.

“I said… Virgil. That’s uh… that’s my name. Virgil. I thought you should know.” It took a few seconds for what he said to fully register in the minds of the twins, but when it did, Remus’s face split into a grin, and Roman glowed.

“Virgil.” Roman breathed, his tone almost reverent. “It’s a beautiful name. I love it.” Virgil smiled shyly.

Remus socked him in the arm suddenly, and he yelped. “It suits an emo like you.” He said, still grinning like a maniac. “Thanks for trusting us with it.” Virgil nodded.

“I’m sorry, did you say your name was…” Virgil turned around to see Logan standing behind him, wide eyed. “Virgil?” His voice sounded painfully hopeful, and something about the way his voice carried it felt familiar.

A memory came to him unbidden, his older brother watching him as he ran through the streets, calling out his name and telling him to slow down. Why did Logan’s voice remind him of that? He looked Logan up and down, seeing his black hair, and gray eyes, and… and…  _ oh. _

“Are you…?” He said, barely daring to hope. He didn’t think it was possible. He had lost his brother in the forest when he was maybe four or five years old, so he always knew that he very well may still be alive. But the chances of finding him, of being able to see him again, when the kingdom was so big and there were so many people who lived in it, were incredibly slim.

“I…” Logan seemed speechless. Well and truly speechless. He took a deep breath, and Virgil could tell he was collecting his thoughts. “My brother’s name was Virgil. He and I got separated in the middle of a forest after our parents got swept over a cliff during a violent storm fifteen years ago.”

Virgil sucked in a breath. “That’s… I…” He looked down at his hands. “Oh my god you really are my brother.”

Logan smiled, genuinely smiled, and it held the most emotion Virgil had ever seen on the man. “He…  _ you _ didn’t want to believe that they were gone,” Logan continued. “and I didn’t either, even though I had seen it with my own eyes. You ran off to try and find them, and I tried to follow you, but in the darkness, it was hard to keep up. I searched for days, but never found you, and eventually gave up, assuming you had died in the forest. I mourned your death for years, yours and Mom’s and Dad’s, and even still, there was always that irrational kernel of hope, that stupid little voice in my head that told me that maybe you weren’t dead. That somehow, you had survived. Maybe someone else found you, or maybe you went to another village or city and had grown up happy after all. And… it was stupid, because there was no way that could  _ possibly  _ be true and yet… it seems that is what must have happened after all.”

Virgil could hardly breathe. This- what- how was this possible? Fifteen years. Patton had searched the capital and heard no news of his brother. They had looked through the forests and there had been no sign of him. Pat had even tried a tracking spell, but that had failed because he didn’t know his brother personally. And now here he was. Here he had been, right there, and Virgil hadn’t even seen it. They looked so similar. How had he missed it?

“Virgil, what?” Roman was looking between the two of them with a bewildered look on his face. “You never told us you had a brother.”

“That’s because I… I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. Logan I…” Virgil trailed off. He felt his eyes start to water once more. Logan opened his arms, and Virgil crashed into him, feeling his brother’s arms wrap around him. Patton was looking on with a surprised but overjoyed expression, clearly elated with this turn of events

“Logan…” Virgil repeated. He had so much he wanted to say. So much he wanted to do. He’d never even allowed himself to dream of this moment, the moment he might reunite with his long lost brother, because he didn’t want to give himself hope. Yet this was really happening, he had found him when he wasn’t even truly looking, and now he was in his arms. It sounded like something straight out of a fairytale.

Before anyone else could speak, before he could say any of the things he wanted to say, more guards charged into the room, these ones even more armed than the ones they had taken out. There were a lot more than there had been before, and Virgil felt his breath catch. At their head was a tall man with sickly pale skin. He had sunken black eyes, coarse black hair, and an elaborate crown on his head. Ah, this must be the “king.”

Everyone in the room froze, caught completely off guard. But of course, they should have expected this. The king had been nowhere to be found, they were foolish to expect that he wouldn’t return.

The king scanned the room, his eyes resting on the twins. They narrowed, and he reached for his sword. Janus noticed, and attempted to maneuver himself in front of them. It didn’t work, Roman shot him a look and pushed himself back in front. His sword was laying a few feet away, and Virgil could see in his eyes that he was going to go for it.

Before he could, though, the king pulled his long and serrated blade from its sheath. The other guards began taking defensive positions. The king charged, and Virgil felt time slow to a crawl. He looked around, and saw Roman running towards the sword. Patton and Janus were rushing towards the guards, magic at the ready once more, and Logan stiffened, Virgil still in his arms. Virgil felt his blood turn to ice. Roman was about to face off the king in a battle, even though he was clearly outmatched. He was about to watch his best friend get skewered. Was this the price he had to pay? He reunites with someone, and now someone else gets ripped away from him?

He felt himself lurching forward, trying to get to Roman. He had to help him! But much stronger arms held him back, keeping him from getting to him. Distantly, he recognized who it was, and he recognized that the person was trying to whisper something to him, but all he could see was Roman dying, Roman on the floor, bleeding out with a sword sticking out of him.

Roman grabbed his sword and rolled out of the way as the king’s sword came down. The two of them dueled, and at first they almost seemed evenly matched, but the king had much more training in this. He was bigger, stronger, and intimidating. The anxiety rolling off Roman was so thick it was almost tangible.

He saw Remus was fighting a few of the guards on his own, but as he turned back to Roman, he saw the king slash through his arm. Roman yelped and let go of the sword to clutch the wound and try to stop the bleeding, but in doing so, he left himself defenseless.

Virgil heard someone scream his name, and then realized he was the one screaming. He lurched again, and tried to fight against the arms holding him. It didn’t matter if he knew them or not, or if they were on his side, they were keeping him from getting to Roman.

At hearing his name, Roman hesitated, his gaze snapping to Virgil. Oh no, oh no no no no no. The momentary distraction cost Roman, and allowed the king to back him into a corner. He was still without a weapon, with a wound that was bleeding freely, getting all over his outfit and the floor. 

Virgil slumped down, an overwhelming feeling of despair crashing over him. He felt the same arms that had been keeping him restrained a few seconds ago now supporting him and holding him up. He shut his eyes, not wanting to see Roman get murdered.

There was a sickening squelch, and then absolute silence. Virgil felt the tears come down his face harder than they had before, but instead of the joy he had felt earlier, all he could feel was true anguish. It was over. They had lost. Roman, had lost.

And then, he heard Patton scream. 

**_“JANUS!”_ **

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> It may be awhile before the next update. Or maybe not because I may do this before moving on to other projects. I want to get both endings out at the same time, and their epilogues as well. So hopefully it will be relatively soon, I don't want to keep you guys waiting for too long :)
> 
> I appreciate the support you guys give, it really helps motivate me and it's always nice to hear that someone enjoyed my work. I've very excited to finish this story up, and I'm really glad that I did this. <3


	11. The Bad Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first of two endings!! I... wanted to post them both at the same time, but I am super freaking proud of the epilogue so for those who want to skip the heartbreak and have a good ending to this story, don't worry, the other ending should come out within a few days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Blood, someone's head explodes, injury, major character death
> 
> You have been warned

“ ** _Janus!_** ” Patton screamed in agony as pain ripped through his entire body. He stared in horror as he saw the other sorcerer impaled by the false king’s sword, straight through the stomach. Patton tried to move but his feet were stuck to the floor, and time seemed to move far too slowly. The guards around them had fallen, but the one they had come for had not. How had it come to this? He should have helped Roman sooner, or just done something about the king sooner, or just done _something,_ because now he was looking upon a scene he never in a million years would have imagined himself in. 

See, the thing about sorcerers was that they were immortal, but not invincible. They would never age, and never lose their lives to the sands of time. In spite of that, the fact remained that they were vulnerable to other causes of death, but when one has lived for hundreds of years, it became hard to remember that. Hard to remember that, even with all their magic, they could still die. 

When Janus and him had been together, Patton had never really thought about what would happen if one of them were to lose their life. He had dismissed it as a possibility, though some may consider that foolish. They were too careful for that, and more than that, they were too powerful. Though Patton was an empathetic person, the only thing the two of them had truly cared about was one another. They were willing to do just about anything to hold on to the other. There had been a few close calls, but death still always felt distant during those. Like they knew that it wasn’t their time yet. 

But now… he was suddenly forced to confront the ugly truth, years after they had split, just when he thought that he didn’t care anymore. Janus had changed, it was as clear as the sky on a bright summer day, but instead of accepting the change and being grateful for it, Patton had been hesitant, cautious, and untrusting, and now it was too late.

Janus gripped the king’s head with both of his hands, and his eyes began to glow. The bright golden color was beautiful, and Patton had admired its shade when he was younger, sometimes jealous that his lover’s magic was something so extravagant as gold, and his was as plain as blue. Janus loved Patton’s color, though, and had often told him as much. He said that gold was much too flashy, and he would have loved to have something as beautiful as Patton’s sky blue magic.

Janus started muttering something, and Patton could see golden cracks starting to appear in the king’s head. His mouth moved involuntarily into a tight lipped, grim smile. Patton knew the spell the other sorcerer was using, and it wasn’t the first time he had seen Janus use it either. But the last time he had used it on someone has been under very different circumstances. Last time he had done it for selfish reasons, and Patton had brushed it off, ignoring the red flag and turning a blind eye to his faults.

This time, he was hyper aware of said faults, but now Janus was doing it for the most noble cause of all; to save his son from death. 

Patton looked away, not wanting to see what he knew was about to happen, and a few seconds later, he heard a loud bang. When he cracked open his eyes, the king’s headless body wobbled, before falling over entirely, dead. Janus collapsed with it.

“ _Dad!_ ” Both of the twins screamed in unison, before running over to the fallen sorcerer. They sat down, and Roman took Janus’s hand, his eyes wide. The sword had yet to be pulled out, and no one made a move to do so, as that was most likely the only thing keeping him from bleeding out on the floor. 

Patton found that he could move again, and he rushed over to his fallen ex-lover, his knees buckling beneath him so quickly it hurt on impact. No no no no no no no, this couldn’t be it, this _couldn’t_ be how it ended, he refused to let that happen. Patton pulled the sword out sharply, cringing as the not-quite-dead-yet man cried out in pain, but it needed to be out of the way for him to work. 

His eyes and hands flared bright blue intensely, more so than it had ever been, and he placed his hands over the now very bloody wound. He began muttering, his words slurring together as he fought back panic and tears, not entirely sure of what he was doing, or what spell he was trying to cast. All he knew was that he had to save Janus, and he was failing.

Janus moaned a bit, and reached up with the little remaining strength he had left. He gripped Patton’s wrist, leaving a bloody circle around it, and despite everything, the near dead man’s lips ticked upwards in a smile. Patton hesitated, his magic dying for just a second, but he knew that one second would cost him. 

“I’m… sorry…” Janus rasped, his voice so quiet that if it had not been for the absolute silence in the room, Patton wouldn’t have heard it.

The other sorcerer closed his eyes, and Patton felt his panic spike, his heart, which had been slamming in his chest just seconds ago, completely stopping.

“No. No no no, absolutely not. Do _not_ fall asleep on me, Janus. Don’t do this to me. You can’t. This… this isn’t funny. Wake up. _W_ ** _a_** _k_ ** _e_ ** _u_ ** _p! Wake Up!_ **” His voice became more and more affected by his volatile emotions with each passing word. At some point his magic had died out, and Patton went back to trying to heal the wound. He did manage to close it, but it was too late.

That didn’t stop him from trying to shake Janus back to life, gripping him by the shoulders so hard it would be painful if he had been awake, because no, this was _not_ how this was going to end, this was _not_ going to be the place where Janus died. It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t believe it was really all over.

“Janus…” Patton’s voice broke, feeling tears cloud his vision and stream down his face. “Janus please. Wake up. I’m so sorry. You’ve changed so much, and it was so obvious. But I was too stuck in the past to see it. I’m sorry, I should have realized sooner. Please, wake up. I’ll make it up to you, I’ll do anything you ask, we can go back to living how we did before, everything can be perfect again if you would just _wake up._ Please…” 

The other sorcerer didn’t stir, and Patton let out a jagged, heartbroken cry. The twins were looking on with shocked, panicked expressions. It seemed that they had a lot of emotions to try and process all at once. 

Virgil was staring wide-eyed, shellshocked, while Logan still had his arms wrapped around him in a distinctly protective way. They were the only ones not grieving, but Patton supposed they never knew Janus like the twins and him did. 

Outside, a huge crack of thunder echoed, causing them all to jump slightly, and Patton knew that he had summoned another storm. Judging by the hurricane inside of him, he wouldn’t be surprised if this one was even more volatile than the one he had summoned fifteen years ago. He should probably stop it before it claimed more lives, but in that moment, he probably couldn’t if he had tried. 

Patton crumpled, shielding Janus’s body protectively and sobbing. If you had told him just a few weeks ago that he would have been sobbing over the body of his ex, he would have admittedly laughed in your face. Honestly, who could blame him? The past few weeks had been a wild ride. So much had happened, things that he had never even thought were a possibility were suddenly possible, and he had never even gotten a chance to properly process all of it.

Roman also let out a choked sob, and Remus was still crying silently. Distantly, Patton felt sympathy for the twins. They had just lost the man who had raised them as his own, who had tried his best to prepare them for the responsibility they never knew they were going to have. His own grief, however, completely overwhelmed all other emotions. 

“...Dad?” Virgil’s voice came from behind him, and Patton looked up to see his son looking down at him uncertainly. “Are you… um… what… I…”

Patton smiled wetly at his son’s familiar hesitance. It made a very small part of him feel warm. He sat up, swiping at his face in a futile attempt to dry his tears. It didn't work, the tears he wiped away were immediately replaced by more.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Virgil. You shouldn’t have to see this.” His voice cracked, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be embarrassed about it. The twins were holding onto one another like they were drowning, and the other was a piece of driftwood. Patton was glad that they, at least, still had one another. They would be able to provide comfort for one another.

“Dad, no, it’s… it’s okay. But- can you explain now? How do you- how do you know him?” Virgil was looking very bewildered.

Patton opened his mouth to answer, but a fresh storm of tears started rolling down his face instead. Just thinking of all the memories they had shared together, it hurt. It had hurt before, when Patton had believed that every moment they spent together was a lie, but now it was a different kind of hurt. It was the kind of pain that came with the fact that right as he found out those moments were genuine, Janus was ripped away from him. 

Logan came up and put a hand on Virgil’s shoulder, and Patton noticed that Virgil leaned into the touch.

Patton turned back to Janus’s body, though just seeing it again made the grief worse. Like the knife being twisted after you were stabbed. 

“To answer your question, Virgil…” Patton swallowed thickly. “Janus and I met when we were still very young, and we were in love for a very very long time. We made a life for ourselves in the same cottage that Roman and Remus grew up in. Everything _seemed_ perfect, we didn’t have a care in the world. But… Janus was- had been very ambitious. He was power hungry, and even though I was perfectly happy with the life we had, he thought that we deserved more. So he… kidnapped the twins, who were only three years old, with plans to kill them. What he was hoping for was for their deaths to send the court into chaos, throw everything off balance and make the kingdom grieve, and so we could easily slip in and take what he thought should be ours.

“I… objected very strongly to this. I cursed him and ran away, that’s why he always had those scales. I… I would have taken the twins with me, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. The storm my emotions summoned covered my trail, and I escaped. That was… the same night I found you, Virgil.” He smiled sadly at the memory of a small Virgil, shaking both out of fear and from the cold.

“A few days later, the king and queen were assassinated.” Patton continued. “Part of me always wondered if Janus was responsible for that too, but… I don’t think he was now. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again until… you two surfaced fifteen years later. Like two ghosts rising from the dead” Patton looked over at the twins as he finished his story. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, processing everything they had just learned and everything that had just happened. More thunder could be heard outside, and Patton focused on controlling his emotions, and trying to slow the storm. No one was sure what to do, what to say, because Janus was gone, he was dead, and he was never coming back. How could any of them ever be okay again? 

“So.” After who knows how long, Logan spoke up, looking a bit uncomfortable. “I hate to break this up, and I am so sorry for this. I… don’t know how this happened, we really should have been more careful. I do feel partly responsible for this, I was supposed to be the one who kept everything together, and I failed miserably in that respect.”

“This wasn’t your fault Logan. None of us could have seen this coming.” Roman said, the first words he had spoken since his father’s death. His voice sounded hollow. Empty.

“Still. I am so sorry.” Logan swallowed, and lowered his head. After a few more moments, he bowed at the waist towards the twins. “But if we were to ‘look on the bright side,’ as Lord Picani likes to say, I believe you two are now the new rulers of the kingdom.”

~~~~~~

A few days later, the princes Roman and Remus announced their miraculous return from the dead, and rose to the throne uncontested, backed by Lord Emile Picani, who became their head advisor and helped to guide the inexperienced princes to be great rulers.

They rose up to rule over a broken kingdom, desperate and starving, with broken hearts, still grieving over the loss of the man they had called a father for so long.

Logan was appointed to be an advisor as well, despite his protests that he was unqualified for the job. He was a huge help, and incredibly intelligent. He had experience that no one else on their council shared, having been raised on the street, and was able to provide insight from a point of view none of them would be able to see otherwise.

The new kings set about improving the lives of their people immediately, ordering wealth from the royal treasuries to be distributed across the kingdom to fund repairs. Strict regulations were set on the guard to keep them from abusing their power, and many of the old officers were fired and replaced. Their first task was to help rebuild and repair the crumbling buildings, and within six months of their return to their rightful place on the throne, the kingdom was well on its way to recovery.

The two kings shared their story, how they were taken, how they were raised, and how they found out about their heritage. It was a bit edited, though, and far less detailed, than what had actually happened. They had changed, and they would never again be the carefree boys that had been just weeks before their bloodline was revealed to them. Sometimes courtiers would whisper that the night Janus died had forever changed them for the worse. But still, they balanced one another, and together were wise and fair rulers, loved and supported by their people.. 

Nobles who had retreated to other countries when the power vacuum really started to take its toll began to return, and the land began to heal. For the first time in many years, there was a successful harvest, and the spirits of the citizens rose significantly. 

Roman and Virgil made their relationship official after several more months of pining, and Roman proposed a year later in typical Roman fashion, over the top and dramatic. Of course, Virgil said yes. It wasn’t a perfect ending, not by a long shot, there were so many things that were wrong and off and that would never be the same, but all things considered, it was the closest they were going to get.

~~~~~~

**Epilogue**

~Two Years Later~

“I do.” It was just two words, but they held so much power. As soon as those two words were uttered, their future together was sealed. Patton clapped along with everyone else in the chapel as Virgil and Roman kissed passionately, now officially married, and of course, he couldn’t be happier for his son. After everything they had gone through, everything that had happened for them to get here, Virgil and Roman deserved this.

Patton was sure that this was not what his son had planned when he thought of his romantic future, it was much more extravagant than he usually preferred, but the smile on his face was the brightest Patton had ever seen. Virgil wasn’t known for liking the fancier things in life, but he loved Roman more than life itself, and that alone was enough for him to put up with the over the top ceremony. Patton smiled sadly, thinking about how in all of the time Patton had known Virgil, he hadn’t been able to extract such pure joy from him since he was a little kid.

That wasn’t to say Patton thought that Virgil didn’t love him as much as he loved Roman, he knew his son better than to think that. Virgil had always had that lingering fear of the outside world that Patton had, in all honesty, only helped to push, and Roman was the one who took that fear away. Roman made Virgil feel complete, in a way that Patton alone could never accomplish. And Patton would know. There had been many late night rants about how unfairly gorgeous or perfect or stunning Roman was. Virgil acted just how Patton had when he had been in love with Janus. 

There was something bitter in that statement, hidden deep within the reminder of when he _had_ been in love with Janus. Two years since the sorcerer had died, and the grief was still as strong as ever, even though as time passed, he was able to put the other sorcerer out of mind for the most part.

The wedding came to a close after a few more minutes, and the reception started, much less grand than the wedding itself, at Virgil’s request. Roman was just the same as Virgil, as much as he wanted a huge party, he loved Virgil enough to give him something smaller. It was a compromise that suited the both of them. Only the guests that had deep personal connections attended the reception, so when compared to the number of people attending the wedding, the crowd was quite small.

Patton slipped out the doors quickly after staying for a few minutes to make sure he wouldn’t be missed, and congratulating his son and Roman once more. He knew he probably wasn’t going to be gone for more than a few minutes, but he just wanted to be sure that he wouldn’t miss anything important. It would make Virgil incredibly anxious.

Patton knew that the date they had chosen for the wedding was a coincidence, there was no way that Roman and Virgil knew what day it was. He was sure that if they knew, they never would have agreed to have it today of all days. Patton could have told them, he wasn’t quite sure why he hadn’t, but he had stopped himself every time they tried, and let them continue on their plans.

Patton walked through the beautiful halls of the castle, and pushed open the doors into the inner courtyard. It was beautiful outside today, the sky was the deepest blue Patton had ever seen and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. Pleasantly warm air hit his skin, and a cool breeze blew through, ruffling his hair.

Patton walked past a rose bush, and plucked one off of it, which grew back a moment later. He had spent a large amount of time in the gardens, enchanting the flowers to grow year round and replace any damage to them. Gardening was one of his favorite pastimes, he had spent many a day in the garden of the cottage he used to live in perfecting that garden as well. Patton stared at the dark red color of the flower as he continued walking down the path. Finally, he reached the end of it, and smiled sadly as he gazed at the familiar sight. 

A single cherry blossom tree stood proud and tall at the edge of the gardens. In early spring its white flowers were a beautiful sight to behold, but in the summer, its leaves were a rich green. Beneath the tree, was a tall, flat stone. A simple grave, for a very complicated man.

The twins had debated on whether or not to give Janus a full on memorial, but Patton insisted that whatever they set up for him, they make it simple and exclude from the rest of the world. Janus wouldn’t have wanted strangers visiting him, and it seemed wrong to let people who had never even known about Janus visit his grave, as if they felt anything even close to the level of grief Patton and the twins had experienced.

Patton sat down on the ground in front of the tree, setting the rose on the top of the grave. He smiled sadly, closing his eyes and trying to imagine that Janus was still alive, that Janus had made it, that he had somehow survived the wound.

If he really focused on that feeling, he could almost feel Janus leaning against his shoulder, whispering sweet nothings in his silky smooth voice into Patton’s ear. He could almost hear Janus’s rich laughter at one of Patton’s puns. 

A few tears slipped out from under his eyelids, but he never stopped smiling. Because despite everything, he was still grateful. Grateful that the twins were alive and happy, grateful that his son had finally worked up the courage to leave the pocket world, and had gone on the biggest adventure of his life. Grateful for the time he and Janus had shared together before his big plan, and grateful for the little time afterwards they had, searching for their sons and stargazing in a clearing, surrounded by trees as far as the eye could see and falling asleep outside. 

His grief over Janus’s loss knew no bounds, and it raged hard and true, every single morning that Patton woke up without him by his side. Every single time he saw the twins instinctively looked for him to see what he thought, only to remember that he was gone. Every single time someone mentioned the ordeal the twins had been through carelessly, without truly realizing just how much it had changed them.

But he was still happy. And wasn’t that just the strangest thing? That in the midst of heartbreak and stressful times, trying to balance emotions with rebuilding a kingdom from the ground up, he could still find it in himself to smile. 

Because things were never going to be perfect, and it would never go back to the way it once was. But there was nothing wrong with that. There was no use thinking about what could have been, when that was a time long gone, and the world kept moving. Time doesn’t stop for anybody, no matter who they are, or what they’re going through. The Earth keeps revolving, the sun keeps rising, and that is just how it is, and how it will always be.

So yeah, Patton, all things considered, was satisfied. Janus was and would be missed, and he would forever leave a hole in Patton’s heart. But he was still going to continue on, and maybe one day, the hole wouldn’t feel as big.

He opened his eyes and wiped the remaining tears away. It was going to be okay. He had said it and thought it many, many times over the past few years, but now, he actually believed it. He looked over the gravestone, noticing how a few wildflowers were beginning to grow near the base, and laughed softly.

“Happy anniversary, love.” Patton said, his voice just barely above a whisper. He sighed and stood up, feeling something within him settle, as if he was finally coming to terms with Janus’s death. He turned around and began walking back the way he came. He had a reception to get back to.

  
  



	12. The Good Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh here we are! The final chapter!! I'm so excited!
> 
> This is the second ending, in which Janus doesn't die. Enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Blood, injury, grief

No. No no no no no, this wasn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening, this wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real, there was no way. This- this had to be a dream, right? This was some sick nightmare, this wasn’t happening, because there was no way in a million years that this could actually happen. But try as he might, Patton couldn’t wake up. 

Patton stared in horror as he watched the king impale Janus with a sword that was meant for Roman, all the way to the hilt. He screamed out Janus’s name, agony ripping throughout his entire body as he watched in disbelief of what he was seeing. Distantly, he recognized Janus casting a spell, and distantly, he recognized that the king was now dead, his body missing a head as he collapsed onto the floor. But everything else seemed so… far away. The world faded to black, and all Patton could see was Janus. Suddenly they were just teenagers, and Janus was saving Patton from an aggressive salesman with overpriced apples and too high of a temper. The rest of the world had come to a standstill, and it was just the two of them.

Janus’s head turned, and he locked eyes with Patton. Instead of the fear Patton expected to see in them, the unwillingness to die, there was nothing but acceptance. He didn’t care. He knew he wasn’t going to survive and he  _ didn’t care.  _ Janus offered a sad smile, one that almost looked like a goodbye, and collapsed to the floor, unconscious. 

Patton didn’t hesitate. His feet wouldn’t move, it was like they were glued to the floor, but he forced them to move, because there was no time to waste, and he was determined not to let this be the place where Janus died. Patton bolted over to the fallen sorcerer, nearly tripping over the body of one of the soldiers he had been fighting just a moment ago in the process, and kicking them out of the way without a second thought. They were already dead, there was nothing he could do for them. He had to focus on the one that he could still save.

He couldn’t lose Janus now, not after everything they had endured together. The stress of trying to find their sons before they got themselves killed, the tension of hundreds of years of history between the two of them, the tender moments the two of them shared, the fights, the apology Patton hadn’t accepted, every single memory of the past few weeks when Janus had abruptly re-entered his life was playing and replaying through his head all at once.

He crashed to the ground in front of Janus’s body, his knees hitting the polished floors now stained with blood so hard it hurt, but he barely even noticed it. All he noticed was the wound, the sword sticking out of his ex-lover’s stomach, and the blood he was losing.

There wasn’t a moment to lose. Patton couldn’t focus on anything else. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Roman covering his mouth, his eyes wide with disbelief, and Virgil running towards the prince, throwing himself into Roman’s arms and sobbing with relief.

Patton yanked out the sword, and though he cringed when Janus moaned, it was good. He was still conscious enough to recognize the pain. 

Patton placed his hands on the wound, and began muttering a spell. There was… an odd clarity in his mind, though perhaps there shouldn’t have been. His objective was clear in his head, and he knew what he was supposed to do. But it almost felt like he was supposed to fail, like he was supposed to have a cloudy mind, like he was supposed to let Janus die. The universe wanted to claim his soul, and Patton was just supposed to let it. Like that was the way fate had decided it would go. But Janus had always tried to defy fate, and right now, Patton was trying to do the same. Besides, this wasn’t the first time he had done this spell for Janus. 

It had been a long time ago, and the wound had not nearly been this bad. Janus had gotten stabbed in the shoulder by a random thief after he refused to hand over his purse. Or so that was what the story was, Patton had never entirely believed him, but had just brushed it off. Patton had woven the healing spell carefully, knowing that messing up would only worsen the wound. At the time, Janus had complained the entire time and insisted Patton was babying him, and that he was fine.

Now, he was completely, terrifyingly, still.

Any other man would have thought that the sorcerer was already dead. The chances of surviving a wound like the one he bore were impossible, and he was no longer reacting to anything Patton did. But Patton knew better. He could feel it, a distant heartbeat, soft and almost indetectable, but still there. Janus’s magic would keep him alive for the next few minutes, and Pat had to use that to his full advantage. 

For a few minutes, Patton worked in silence, the other boys around him staring on with intense expressions, and it almost seemed like it was working. Patton closed the wound and healed the damage inside, stopping any further internal bleeding. He replenished his blood supply to make up for the blood he had lost, and even pushed a slight bit of magic into Janus, to wake him up. He hoped that it would be enough. 

Janus’s heartbeat strengthened, and some of the color returned to his cheeks. His scales seemed to regain their glow, and soon, it looked like he was just sleeping. His closed eyes twitched, almost as if he was trying to awaken. He was healed, and he would be okay. Patton let out a massive sigh of relief, feeling a smile spread across his face. 

He heard the twins let out a breath of relief as well, and Virgil had now all but crawled into Roman’s lap. He was looking around, a bit confused, and Patton looked over to see Logan, Virgil’s long lost brother, the thought still made his heart warm, cough into his hand, looking uncomfortable. 

Patton pulled his hands away, assured that Janus was still alive, and he had no need to continue, but as soon as he did, he gasped sharply, the color draining from his face. The second his hands had left Janus’s body, his heartbeat plummeted once more. The color went away, his scales became dull again, and it seemed as though his body seemed to fall flat. The wound stayed closed, thankfully, but other than that, it seemed that all of his progress was lost instantly.

Quickly, Patton placed his hands back on Janus’s body and forced more magic into him. The dead look went away, returning him to the “just sleeping” state, and Patton swallowed, trying to comprehend the realization he had just come to.

The only thing keeping Janus alive right now was Patton’s magic. If he… if he tried to stop… Janus would die. He sucked in a sharp breath, stiffening. How was he supposed to fix this? He had just saved Janus from the brink of death, he couldn’t let him die now! 

There… there really only was one option, wasn’t there? He had never thought he’d actually have to do this, for anyone, for any reason. He had been blind to the possibility that it would ever become necessary.

There were spells out there… that could bind a person’s life force to that of the other. Patton had never performed one of them before, he had never had a need to bind anyone to anything. He had only ever read through that section of his spellbook a couple times, because what use would he ever have for that? He wasn’t even sure if he fully remembered how to cast the spell.

But Patton didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t stay here, sustaining Janus forever. There was no one else here who could do it, and eventually, he would run out of energy. He would have to leave at some point, whether to eat, drink, use the bathroom, or sleep. And then Janus would be alone, and by the time Patton came back, he’d be nothing but a corpse. What else was he supposed to do? 

He sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m so sorry Janus.” He closed his eyes, and tried to remember the spell with everything he had. He had memorized almost his entire spellbook, but the image in his mind was shaky at best. He just had to hope for the best and do what he could.

Lifting one hand from off of the unconscious sorcerer’s stomach, Patton reached out with one finger, hovering above Janus’ chest. Carefully, he traced a symbol, a rune, onto his chest. Immediately after he had connected the two ends of the circle, it flared a bright, and brilliant blue. Well, that had to be a good sign. If he hadn’t drawn it right, it wouldn’t have glowed at all. He remembered the rune for it, he just had to remember the rest.

Patton took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. If his voice was shaky for the spoken part of the spell, it would fall apart. 

Patton started chanting, magic warping his voice and making it sound inhuman, entirely unrecognizable. The rune began to bleed outwards, veins of light blue spreading throughout Janus’s entire body, wrapping around his arms, legs, torso, and even his face, and his head. They also began to crawl up Patton’s arms, but didn’t extend any farther than that.

As he went one, the rest of the incantation became much easier to remember. It was almost like it was some deep-seated memory that was being dredged up from the back corner of his mind. It was almost as if the spell itself were guiding him, if that were even possible.

Then, something amazing happened. The veins of magic turned sheer, and brilliant gold. The rune swirled with both colors, and for a second, Janus’s eyes flew open. He sucked in a sharp breath, and reached up, grabbing Patton’s wrist tightly.

The moment only lasted for a second, however, and while the gold remained, the other sorcerer’s eyes fluttered closed once more, and the grip on Patton’s wrist slackened. That had to mean the connection had been forged, but he still had to stabilize it. So, even during all of that, Patton never broke concentration.

He finished the last line of the incantation and watched as the veins seemed to sink into both of their skin. The rune dispersed, and the magic glow was gone. Patton sat back, panting slightly from the exertion of the spell, watching with anticipation to see what would happen.

Unlike last time, Janus’s condition didn’t worsen immediately. His breathing remained steady, his skin retained its color, and he seemed peaceful. Calm.

But he didn’t wake up. 

There were a few minutes of tense silence, where his condition didn’t worsen in any way shape or form, but his eyes remained closed, and he remained asleep. He was still breathing, the wound was gone, he was just… sleeping. 

“Janus?” Patton hesitantly gripped the other sorcerer by the shoulder, and shook him. He still didn’t wake. “C-come on. You’re- you’re just messing with me, right? Wake up.” He shook him harder. Still no reaction. 

There were two very intense emotions coursing through Patton’s veins right now. On the one hand, he had managed to save Janus’s life. He was alive, his wound was gone, and he was mostly fine. Relief was coursing through Patton’s veins so strongly he thought he might collapse from it. But Janus now seemed to be in some sort of magic induced coma. Patton had made a mistake somewhere along the spell. And there was no telling when he would wake up. So panic was also there, slowly eating away at him.

“Dad?” Virgil’s voice spoke up, quiet and hesitant. He was still in Roman’s arms and his face looked confused and conflicted. “Is… is he going to be okay?” 

“I don’t know honey.” Patton said, his voice tired and lacking energy. “I don’t know.” He hid his face in his hands and tried not to cry. This was too much. Everything was too much. He took a few deep breaths, swallowing the lump in his throat. How was he supposed to deal with all of this?

At some point, Remus had come up behind all of them, and was looking down at Janus’s still unconscious body. He sank to his knees beside Patton, and gently took Janus’s hand, squeezing it as if he hoped it would somehow magically wake him from his slumber. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.” Patton said, his voice thick with emotion. “Janus and I have a long history together, and you all deserve an explanation for our behavior around one another. We… We met when we were still very young, and we were in love for a very very long time. We made a life for ourselves in the same cottage that Roman and Remus grew up in, actually. Everything  _ seemed _ perfect, we didn’t have a care in the world. But… Janus was always very ambitious. He was power hungry, and even though I was perfectly happy with the life we had, he thought that we deserved more. So he… kidnapped the twins, who were only three years old, with plans to kill them. What he was hoping for was for their deaths to send the court into chaos, throw everything off balance and make the kingdom grieve, and so we could easily slip in and take what he thought should be ours.

“I… objected very strongly to this. I cursed him and ran away, that’s why he always had those scales. If I could go back and change one thing about that night… I would have taken the twins with me, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. The storm my emotions summoned covered my trail, and I escaped. That was… the same night I found Virgil, actually.” He smiled at his son, the boy he had found and raised. “I tried to forget about Janus and just focus on raising Virgil, but it seems he somehow made his way back into my life anyway. And now here we are, and he’s asleep and I am so, so sorry.”

“It- it’s okay.” Roman spoke up, swallowing. “You… you saved him. He’s still alive and as long as he’s still alive, there’s still a chance that he’ll wake up. Thank you. I don’t know what we would have done if he had… because of…” 

“It’s not your fault, Roman.” Virgil said immediately, reaching up and placing a hand on his cheek. “You can’t blame yourself.” Roman didn’t say anything, but he didn’t quite look convinced. 

“And on the bright side,” Remus added, his voice sounding like he was trying for chipper and happy and not quite succeeding. It was forced and his smile was fake. He was trying to hold back his own emotions. “We did it! We got rid of that dirty fucker! We can finally… reclaim our birthright.”

“That’s right.” Patton gasped, remembering the whole reason they had even been in the castle in the first place. “I believe you two are now the new kings.” 

~~~~~~

A few days later, the kingdom rejoiced at the news of the old king’s death, and the twin princes’ return from the dead. They rose to the throne uncontested, backed by Lord Emile Picani, who was selected to be their head advisor. Patton was given a position as an advisor as well, as was Logan, despite his protests of being unqualified.

It took awhile for things to settle down and become steady, of course. Old nobles who had been planning on attempting to steal the throne for themselves didn’t immediately back down. Many made the mistake of underestimating the two kings because of their inexperience. Needless to say, the dissent didn’t last long. No one dared to question their legitimacy with Emile working behind the scenes, and those who knew the old ruling couple could see for themselves the resemblance they bore to their parents. 

Nobles who had retreated to other countries when the power struggle began returned and swore loyalty to the twins, helping to guide them. They helped the twins assemble an advisory council, and provided funds for the rebuilding efforts.

The twins also ordered money from the royal treasuries be distributed out to help the citizens, and strict regulations were put on the guards. The new kings ruthlessly stamped out any corruption within the guard and carefully monitored it to make sure nothing like that ever happened again. 

After several more months of pining that was both incredibly frustrating to watch and required a whole other level of obliviousness from both parties, Roman finally stopped beating around the bush and asked Virgil out. The two of them carried out a healthy and beautiful relationship, and gave absolutely zero fucks about what other people thought of them.

Roman proposed a year later, and of course, Virgil said yes. No one was surprised, and they began planning the wedding.

Janus… didn’t wake up from the coma, though Patton tried everything he could think of to try and stir him from his sleep. The twins shared their story, though it was a bit edited. No one needed to know Janus’s true intentions around kidnapping the twins, they didn’t want controversy surrounding him. 

The kingdom began to heal. The people got stronger and happier with each passing day. The kings reached out to old allies, informing them of the change, and things slowly got better. The twins visited Janus every day, and though they were busy, every so often they’d go riding out into the woods and explore, just for old times’ sake.

~~~~~~

**Epilogue**

~Two years later~

Patton clapped excitedly along with the rest of the guests as the wedding came to a close, with Virgil and Roman kissing like the world was about to end. His cheeks were sore from smiling so much, and his heart was full.

Two years ago, he had worried that Virgil would never find anyone, he would never have any relationships of any kind, because he was so scared of the outside world. But here he was, married to the first person outside of Patton he had met in fifteen years. He was so proud of his son, more than he would ever know how to express.

The ceremony was quite grand, Roman had really gone all out this time. Parties really were his specialty, even if Virgil wasn’t the biggest fan of such huge celebrations. Patton had never seen his son happier, though. There was a lightness to his walk that hadn’t been there two years ago, he smiled more often. He was less anxious. Being with Roman was good for him.

The wedding was over, and so people began filtering out of the chapel. The reception they had planned only invited the people they knew personally, so there were far less guests attending that than there had been at the wedding. Per Virgil’s request, it was simpler, not as extravagant, though there were still a few fancy touches here and there, and it wasn’t a huge celebration. Roman had agreed, because while he loved elaborate parties, he loved Virgil more.

Patton spent a few minutes in the reception, making sure he wasn’t going to be missed for anything important. He congratulated his son for what felt like the one hundredth time that day, hugged both him and Roman, and danced with Virgil once. Then he slipped out the door, casting one last look behind him.

The hallways were mostly empty, and outside, it was a beautiful day. The sky was the deepest blue he had ever seen, and a gentle breeze floated in through the open windows. He hummed as he walked, in a better mood than he had been in several months. Things were well and truly looking up, which Patton was glad for. There was only one thing about his current life that he would change, and he was about to change it right now. Allegedly.

There was nothing saying that this one would work any better than the other possible solutions he had tried, but he had a good feeling about this one. He knew that Roman was sad the man who raised him couldn’t attend the wedding. He had wished that Janus had been awake for him to see all of this. Patton wished that too. He knew that Janus would be so proud of what the kings had managed to accomplish. And wouldn’t it be the ultimate wedding gift to grant that wish?

He stopped by his room and picked up his journal, opening it up and flipping through the pages to make sure that it was the right one. He had several, but this journal he was looking through in particular was special. This was the one he used to keep track of his attempts to wake Janus. To find the error he had made in the binding spell and undo it. Just last night he had perfected the formula for yet another spell that would, supposedly, wake the other sorcerer from his magical slumber.

He had run out of premade spells only six months into his attempts. Nothing had been strong enough, so he had resorted to creating his own spells. Many of them drew reactions, like him stirring, or even fluttering his eyes, but it never lasted. The longest he had managed to keep his eyes open was a few seconds, and he still hadn’t been fully awake. This time would be different though. He wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he did.

He tucked the spellbook under his arm and went back out into the halls. A smile grew on his face as he approached the room where Janus was being kept. There was always a guard stationed outside of it, there to defend the sleeping man in case anyone were to attempt to harm him in his vulnerable state for whatever reason.

The guard bowed as he saw Patton approaching. “Here to give it another go?” He asked. “Shouldn’t you be at your son’s wedding?”

“I’m sure I won’t be missed for a few minutes. I have a good feeling about this one.” He replied, just barely containing his energy.

“Well, don’t let me stop you.” The guard gestured to the door, and Patton pushed it open. Inside was a plain but finely decorated bedroom. They hadn’t wanted to keep him in the medical wing, he wasn’t injured, sick, or recovering from anything, so a spare bedroom had seemed like the best option. The decorations were all white and shades of gray, and every single time, Patton felt like he was walking straight into a fairytale. Like a scene frozen in time, because nothing ever changed about it.

He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed where Janus was laying, perfectly still. To anyone who wasn’t aware of what was truly happening, or how it happened, it would have looked like he was just asleep. There was nothing suggesting that this was anything more than a nap. The only difference was that he had been “napping” for two years. 

Patton set his journal down and flipped it open to one of the very last pages, the one with the spell he had created just last night. He was hit with a rush of nervousness and doubt, wondering if this would work, but took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. He just had to hope for the best and expect the worst, just like he had been doing all these months. 

He read over the spell one last time, checking for spelling errors and fully committing it to memory. Once he was sure of himself, or as sure as he could be in that moment, he let out a breath, and set his hand on Janus’s chest. This time he wasn’t using a rune, he was going to use the rune that was already binding Janus to him, and hope that the spoken word would be enough.

He summoned his magic, feeling it rush forward like a river whose dam had just been destroyed. He relaxed his body completely, and pushed the slightest bit of magic into Janus. 

Immediately, the veins of magic and the rune of the binding spell reappeared, still a mix of golden and blue. He felt a slight breeze blow through the room, despite the fact that none of the windows were open, and smiled slightly. Now came the hard part.

He began speaking the incantation, speaking in a language that was so archaic it was lost to the sands of time, only to be heard of when a sorcerer performed a spell. The breeze strengthened, messing up his hair and chilling the tips of his ears. 

As he continued, the wind only continued to get stronger. It began swirling around them, affecting the two of them but nothing else. The rest of the room remained completely untouched, still as calm as ever. 

His hands were already glowing, but the glow soon spread, enveloping him and Janus in a casing of magic. It was getting harder to finish the spell, he was distracted by the wind and losing his focus, but he kept going, speaking each word with a clarity that he had only ever had a few times before.

And then, in a somewhat anticlimactic ending, the wind dropped. The magic faded, and everything went still once more. Patton removed his hand, winded and out of breath from all of the magic he had expelled. It was a wonder that no one had come in to see what was going on from all the noise the spell created, but he supposed that the castle staff had learned not to break his focus by now.

There were a few minutes where Patton held his breath, anticipation building up. His confidence in the spell began to slowly drain away, as time ticked on and Janus didn’t even stir. 

Finally, Patton sighed, unable to contain his disappointment. He had really thought that this would be the one. He felt tears prick at his eyes, but swiped them away with the back of his hand. He had hoped to give Remus and Roman the best surprise of their lives, but he guessed it wasn’t meant to be. Oh well, maybe next time he would get it right. For the first time, he wasn’t so sure that he believed in that statement anymore.

He got up, and headed back to the door, dejected. He still had to get back to the reception, if he was gone for too much longer, he would definitely be missed. But right as he reached for the door handle, though, he heard a groan.

Instantly he froze, hardly daring to breathe, in case he had heard wrong, and it was just his mind playing tricks on them. But he heard shifting coming from behind him, and sucked in a shaky breath. It couldn’t be. There was no way that… that couldn’t have actually worked, could it?

“Ngh… Pat?” A voice spoke from behind him, and all of a sudden, it was like the world stopped. Patton whipped around and just barely avoided collapsing to the floor immediately, his knees weak, because he was there! Janus was there, he was sitting up, and he was  _ awake. _

Patton gasped wetly, covering his mouth with his hand. This felt like a dream. Was this a dream? He didn’t know anymore. He felt tears running down his face as his heart stuttered in his chest.

“Pat? What’s wrong?” Janus asked, concern written over his face, as if he were completely unaware that he had been asleep for the past two years, and in that time, Patton had devoted every waking moment to trying to wake him. It only took a few moments for his memories to come back, however, and he seemed to piece together what happened. “How long have I been out?” 

Patton didn’t answer. He just flew across the room, crashing into Janus and holding onto him desperately. He sobbed loudly into the other sorcerer’s chest, gripping him tighter than he’d ever held anyone before, afraid that the second he let go, Janus would disappear. He couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, because Janus was right there and he was  _ alive _ and  _ awake _ and completely whole, as if nothing had ever happened. It was almost too much to process.

“Shh, it’s okay Pat.” Janus whispered, stroking his hair. “It’s going to be okay now. I’m right here.” And Patton had been told that many times, that it would be okay, both by people who were encouraging him to keep trying to wake Janus and people who gently tried to suggest that maybe he should stop. That Janus wasn’t ever going to wake up. Now, though, he believed him. “You’ll have to explain everything to me, though. I’m afraid I don’t know much about current events.” 

Patton snorted. “I’ll explain later. But right now, you need to clean yourself up and meet me out in the hall. We have our sons’ wedding reception to get back to.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've been here since the beginning, thank you so very much for sticking around. Your support means a lot to me and the nice comments you guys leave never fail to make my day. I can't believe that it's all over, actually. This story has been going on for a while so the fact that it's complete is just... wow.
> 
> But thank you so much for reading. I hope to see you all in my future projects, but if not, that's okay too. I'm glad to have you here either way.

**Author's Note:**

> I am always open to constructive criticism. Feel free to drop your critiques in the comments


End file.
